Phoenix Light
by SilvorMoon
Summary: When Edo Phoenix was a child, he interrupted a robber intent on stealing the Bloo-D - so its power passed to someone much closer to him.
1. Runaway

**Runaway**

**By: SilvorMoon**

The boy's name was Edward Phoenix, and when he grew up, he was going to be either a superhero, a policeman, or a card designer like his father - he hadn't made his mind up yet. He was, however, only six years old, so there was plenty of time to make up his mind. On that particular night, if someone had asked him that all-important question, he would have replied that he wanted to be a Power Ranger. He was sprawled on the floor of his father's workroom, playing with a heap of different colored action figures, narrating a convoluted adventure that involved a lot of last minute rescues, unexpected betrayals, dramatic declarations, mysterious villains, secret identities, and was in short a good deal more interesting and well-thought out than most of what he watched on television. From time to time, the action figures would chime in with various supportive blips and blasts. His father, hard at work nearby, could only marvel and wonder if the boy himself could actually follow all the intricacies of the story.

"All right, Ed, I think we're done for the night," he said.

Ed bounced to his feet, going from horizontal to vertical in a move too fast to follow, and in another instant was at his father's side.

"Let me see! Let me see!" he begged.

"All right, all right - here you go." Mr. Phoenix passed the paper he'd been drawing on to his son, who took it gently. He knew the rules. You would have had more luck convincing him to burn a house down than to smudge or damage one of his father's creations.

"This is going to be one of mine, right?" asked Edo. "For my deck?"

Mr. Phoenix smiled..

"Of course," he said. "Everything I draw is for you, whether you put it in your deck or not."

"Can we play tonight? Just one game?" asked Ed, his blue eyes wide. "Please, Daddy?"

"I don't know. It's nearly bedtime..."

"I can stay up! I'm not sleepy!" Ed declared. "You're mean if you won't play with me."

"All right, just one game," said his father, "but then you have to go to bed. Run and get your cards."

Ed gave a whoop and hurried off to his room to get his deck. Mr. Phoenix smiled, feeling a glow of pride. He had become a card designer largely for his son's sake. When his wife had died two years ago, he had come dangerously close to a complete breakdown. Unable to concentrate on his work, he had lost his job as a graphic artist for a successful corporation. He'd gone through one or two part-time jobs, and on a few memorable occasions, had come home drunk or simply not come home. The cycle had finally broken when he had been sitting in his bare kitchen, staring at nothing, when Ed had toddled in and asked him why he wasn't working.

"I don't know what to do," he had admitted.

"Draw," said Ed, who knew what he wanted even back then. "Draw heroes."

So that day, instead of working or even thinking of working, he had spread papers and pencils and pens over his kitchen table and drawn costumed superheroes of every size, shape, and color until his hands ached. The next morning, he had groomed himself neatly, packed everything up in a portfolio, and made copies of his work to submit to anyone he could think of who might be interested in a man who drew comic book heroes.

As it turned out, one of them was - namely, the head of Inudstrial Illusions, who had hired him on the spot. Mr. Phoenix had been glad to be drawing a wage doing what he loved, and even happier that Ed had taken to the game like a duck to water. Even at six years old, the boy was already showing glimmers of genius; in a few more years, it would not be surprising to see him winning tournaments. Mr. Phoenix would not have minded if he chose not to, though. For now, he was his son's hero, and that was more than enough for him.

Ed returned, clutching his deck, and Mr. Phoenix took his own cards out of a drawer and settled himself down on the floor to begin to play. He wasn't much of a player himself. He had to have a thorough knowledge of the rules to design good cards, but he didn't have the instinct for gaming that his son had. Truth be told, he wasn't good enough to even hold his own against Ed, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy playing with him anyway. Just seeing the joy Ed got out of handling the cards Mr. Phoenix had made for him made him happy.

"I win!" Ed declared.

"So you did! And now it's time to go to bed," Mr. Phoenix replied.

Ed narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Are you sure you didn't lose on purpose?"

"I promise I didn't lose on purpose. You're just getting too good for your old man," said Mr. Phoenix. "Come on, now. Pick up your cards and get ready for bed. If you get up early, we'll play again before I go to work."

"Okay!"

With that acceptable compromise, Ed gathered up his toys and allowed himself to be hustled off to brush his teeth and change into his pajamas. His father tucked him into bed and gently kissed Ed's forehead.

"Kissing's yucky," said Ed.

"I'll do it anyway," his father replied. "Goodnight, Ed. Sweet dreams."

"Night, Daddy," Ed said. His eyes were already sliding closed. By the time his father had left the room and turned off the lights, he was already asleep.

In his dreams, Ed stood on a roof with his father, looking up at the stars as they had often done in the past. Usually there were limits to just how many stars they could see, on the roof of a skyscraper at night. The weather, the moon, and the lights of the city usually combined to block out most of them. In his dream, though, they were all there: Draco, Cygnus, Pegasus, Cancer, Virgo, Gemini, the Corona Borealis, and more that he'd never seen before. They were bright and clearly delineated, like the pictures in the storybooks where the stars were connected with lines to show how the pictures were made. They moved around, like people milling through a shopping center, looking at the other scattered stars that weren't part of any constellation in particular.

"Look," said Ed's father, pointing. "I've never seen that star before."

Ed looked up to see one star that was brighter than the others. Even as he looked, it began coming closer to earth, glowing more and more brightly until Ed was forced to close his eyes to shield himself from the brightness.

When he opened them, he was awake.

This was new. Ed rarely woke in the middle of the night, and he wasn't used to the way his room looked in the midnight darkness. He blinked a little, letting his eyes adjust until the shadows formed themselves into familiar shapes. Now that he was awake, he didn't really want to go back to sleep. He lay very still, staring up at the ceiling, listening to the night noises.

One of the noises didn't sound quite right. It sounded like footsteps. Maybe his father was awake too! Moving silently, Ed climbed out of his bed and tiptoed down the hall towards his father's office. The door was standing open. That was different. His father usually left it closed when he was working. Ed pushed it open a little further and went in.

"Daddy?" he called.

There was a clunk. A shadowy figure turned around to stare at Ed, and the little boy realized that this was not his father.

"Who are you?" Ed demanded. "What are you doing in my dad's room?"

The dark figure sighed.

"Oh, you're just a kid," he said. "Look, I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just looking for something, and when I find it, I'll leave. So just go on back to sleep."

Ed shook his head stubbornly. "You don't belong here. This is my dad's place."

"I'm visiting," said the man flatly. "Just go away. I don't want to hurt you."

At the word "hurt", red flags went up in Ed's mind, and there was only one thing to do in situations like that. He took a deep breath and bellowed, "DADDY!"

The result was immediate. The shadowy man sprang forward and slapped his hand over Ed's mouth, but it was already too late. Within seconds, Mr. Phoenix himself appeared, still in his nightclothes, looking wild-eyed.

"Get your hands off my son!" he shouted.

That was apparently too much for the strange man. He broke into a run, pushing past Mr. Phoenix and into the hallway. Mr. Phoenix let him go.

"Are you all right?" he asked Ed.

Ed nodded. "I'm okay. Who was that?"

"No one good," Mr. Phoenix replied. He still looked a bit shaken; the arms he embraced his son with were trembling.

Satisfied that Ed was alive and in one piece, Mr. Phoenix went to the phone and made a call to the police. Ed listened in rapt fascination. If he couldn't be a Power Ranger when he grew up, the idea of being a policeman was looking better all the time. He was very sorry when his father told him to go back to bed.

"The bad man won't be back now," he promised. "The police caught him, and he's gone to jail. Everything is all right."

"I did good, didn't I?" said Ed sleepily, as his father tucked him in for the second time that night. "I caught the bad guy, just like a real hero."

"Yes, you were a hero tonight," Mr. Phoenix said. "I'm proud of you."

Ed smiled as he snuggled under his blankets, feeling completely happy. His father was proud of him. This was probably the best thing he'd ever done.

* * *

Everyone knew there were adults in the house. No one had ever seen them, but they must have been there. Someone paid the bills and earned the money to do it with. Someone kept the house spotless and cooked the meals that its inhabitants ate. The most compelling evidence was that someone must have produced the two children who lived there. But mostly, people just knew that there were adults there because that's what they wanted to believe, what they had been told, and what made the most sense. Two children, the oldest barely more than ten years old, couldn't possibly be living by themselves, could they?

Everyone knew the children existed. People saw them going in and out of the house. Sometimes they would even stop and talk to someone. Mostly, they kept to themselves - a pair of quiet, well-mannered, well-dressed children who never seemed to made noise or mess or trouble. They were easily forgettable. They probably went to school, but no one knew where, or with whom. No one ever came over to play with them.

"Did you get any money today?" asked Mizuchi, as her brother came in.

"Some," Takuma agreed. He sighed as he emptied his pockets onto the kitchen table, where Mizuchi was sitting and sipping tea. Her feet dangled several inches above the floor. She looked at the money.

"That's not enough," she said. "You're going to have to talk to the landlord again."

"It's getting harder," Takuma admitted. "He always notices when the figures don't add up. Sooner or later, he'll realize why he has money missing. I can make him forget, but he'll just remember again the next time he goes over his books."

Mizuchi's feet swung faster. "Are we going to have to move again?"

"Do you want to?"

"No."

"We might have to start stealing again," said Takuma. His face tightened. "But they deserve it! They try to take away everything we have and never give us anything, and all we want is to be left alone!"

"Don't get angry," said Mizuchi. She slid out of her chair and went to put her arms around her brother. "Ask your cards what to do. They always know."

"All right, I'll try."

Takuma went upstairs to fetch his cards. He hadn't had them for very long, and he was still a little in awe of what happened when he used them. Most of the time, he kept them stored in a box in his room, except on the days when he felt moved to take them out into the world and earn a bit of money by telling fortunes. He had stopped doing that when it had ceased to be a reliable source of income. He refused to disrespect his cards by lying about what they told him, and no one really wanted a fortune that was accurate. They all wanted good news and prognostications on their love lives. Accurate futures tended to make people uncomfortable. Takuma and Mizuchi were already uncomfortable, though, so he got them out anyway and began spreading them across the floor. Mizuchi crouched across from him, watching wide-eyed.

"Hm," said the boy, looking down at the cards. No one had ever told him what the symbols on the front meant. It had surprised him when he realized that not everyone knew. Their messages had always been as clear to him as though they were speaking into his ear. Now he gazed at them contemplatively, reshuffled them, and laid them out again in a new pattern. He frowned.

"Is it bad?" asked Mizuchi. The cards were a mystery to her. Her brother had attempted to explain them to her, but she had never quite gotten the hang of it the way he had. She could occasionally catch glimpses of the future in her mirrors, if she was lucky, but her brother was the only one who could read the lines of fate whenever he wished.

"Not bad. Just strange," said Takuma. "The cards say we have to go to America."

"Are you sure?" asked Mizuchi.

"I looked twice," her brother assured her. "We definitely have to go there. There's someone we have to meet there. Him." He pointed at a card with a serious looking man on it. Mizuchi looked.

"A grownup? But they don't like us."

Takuma shook his head. "The card doesn't tell what he looks like. It tells what he _is_ like. This one is the Hierophant - someone who loves justice." The boy looked wistful. "A protector. Someone _safe_."

Mizuchi gazed at the card a little longingly. "He'll make things better?"

"Not right away, but yes," said Takuma. He pointed to a different card. "This one means he's in trouble now. We have to find him and help him. If we do that, he'll pay us back by taking care of us."

"And he won't be afraid of us or anything?" asked Mizuchi. "Let's find him." She hesitated. "How are we going to get to America?"

"The same way we do everything else," Takuma replied. "We ask."

* * *

Mr. Phoenix was still feeling shaken. The fact that someone had come that close to hurting his son, the only family he had left and his reason for living, left him feeling weak in the knees. It was long after he had learned that the intruder had been captured and hauled away, long after Ed had been put to bed for the second time, almost at the point where he had been ready to lie down to sleep himself, that he realized he had not thought to check on his card.

_Come to think of it, that might be why he was here in the first place,_ Mr. Phoenix thought, as he got out of bed.

The Bloo-D was his greatest creation, and this was the first time it had been allowed out into the world. He had actually submitted the design months ago, never actually expecting it to be accepted. He had simply been seized with a desire to create a card that was truly powerful, something people would long for and admire. Every card designer probably went through that same thing, and Pegasus did his best to discourage people from making too many cards of that nature. The Bloo-D had been submitted more as a lark than anything else, but Pegasus had apparently been intrigued enough to allow a single copy to be printed - to be examined, he said. Mr. Phoenix was no expert on the magical side of dueling, and so had simply been pleased that the card would be created at all. In the end, Pegasus had decided that the card could be allowed to exist, but there would never be any more like it. Mr. Phoenix had asked, and been permitted, to keep the card as an heirloom for his son. It wouldn't make much of an heirloom, though, if it ended up being stolen.

He stepped into his workroom and switched on the light. It was a mess, but he had known that already - he had reported it as being such when he had talked to the police. He had been too flustered at the time to remember that there was something of value in there when usually all he had were papers and pens and pencils and paints. Now he went to the drawer where the Bloo-D had been resting. It was still there. He sighed with relief.

Content that his card had not been damaged, he took a moment to admire it. It was one thing to see the original art in its unrefined state, and another to see it framed and gleaming in its finished form. Even if he couldn't duel his way out of a paper sack, he still couldn't help but wish he could when he looked at a card like this. Almost reverently, he reached for it.

A jolt of something shot up his arm like an electric shock, and for an instant his vision blazed with pure white light. He staggered backwards, blinking at the pinpricks of light that were still dancing in front of his eyes. His heart was pounding so hard he could see the vibration through the fabric of his nightshirt. He shook himself.

"What was that?" he said. And then, "Whew. It's been a rough day. No wonder I'm seeing stars. I had better turn in, or I'll be too exhausted to work tomorrow."

He put the card back in its drawer, thinking of nothing more than lying down and getting some sleep. He shuffled back to his room, yawning, finding suddenly that he could barely keep his eyes open. The moment his head touched his pillow, he fell into a deep and dream-filled sleep. The dreams were turbulent things, full of swirling stars and pulsing lights, things that filled him with wonder. He'd never had such beautiful, vivid dreams. He was sorry when his alarm woke him the next morning and he had to go back to the real world.

Despite his interrupted night, however, he found he awoke refreshed and energized, with his mind still full of the images from his dreams. One thing he was certain of: he had to find a way to catch them on paper and on canvas. It would be a loss to the world if that beautiful light were lost to the rest of the world...

Ed was in the kitchen.

"Good morning, Daddy!" he called.

"Morning, son," said Mr. Phoenix. He went to fix himself a cup of coffee.

"I have my deck," Ed prompted. When that got no response, he added, "You said if I got up early, we'd play before you went to work. And I'm up early."

"Sorry, Ed, not today," said Mr. Phoenix. "Your father has a lot of work to do. I want to get a jump start on it while I can."

"But Dad, you promised!"

"Later," he replied, "when I have time."

With that, he took his cup of coffee into his office and locked the door. A small part of him felt sorry that he had decided not to play games, but... Ed would always be there to play games. He might not feel so inspired later. He had to work now while the lovely images were still in his head. Humming softly to himself, he pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and began to draw.

* * *

Ed Phoenix did not know what was going on, and that bothered him. Not that he wasn't used to not always understanding why grownups did the things they did, but if there was one thing he had always understood, it was that his father was there for him. Now, suddenly, he was not. He still cooked the meals and helped Ed tie his shoes and took him grocery shopping and sometimes even stopped to play cards with him, but that wasn't the same as being _there_. There was always something distracted about him, a faraway light in his eyes that suggested he was thinking about something else. Even when they dueled, Ed got the feeling that his father was paying more attention to the cards than to him. The cards were getting strange, too. His father had designed a string of new ones that he had immediately incorporated into his deck as soon as they reached their final form. Ed was forced to admit that they were an improvement on his old deck, but the feeling that the only reason Ed's father played with him at all was to have a chance to admire his new cards took all the fun of it, and eventually Ed stopped asking to play.

It had been a few months since the break-in, and Ed kept waiting for things to go back to normal, but at this point he was forced to admit that things were getting worse instead of better. It had been days since his father had even spoken to him properly. These days, all he did was get up, fix breakfast, and hurry into his office and lock the door behind him, and there he would stay until it was time to come out and fix lunch, and then he would go right back in again until dinnertime. Sometimes he would come out again to go to bed. Sometimes he would not.

Today he had not come out for lunch. Ed waited quietly outside his door for a while before raiding the fridge for an apple and getting some cookies out of the cabinet.

By dinnertime, Ed was hungry, bored, and getting more than a little fed up with the whole thing. He marched up to the door to his father's office and turned the knob. It wouldn't open.

"Dad!" he shouted.

There was a rustling inside, and, finally, a voice.

"You've made me smudge a line," said his father irritably. "What do you want?"

"I want in!"

"Not now, Ed. I'm busy."

"You're always busy!" Ed shouted back. "All you ever do is work! You never pay attention to me anymore!"

"Don't be selfish, Ed. This is my job. Sometimes I'm just going to be busy, but that doesn't mean I don't still care about you."

"You don't care! You _don't_! If you cared, you'd come out!"

"That's quite enough. I didn't raise you to be disrespectful, and I won't have you behaving that way now. Now, apologize."

"No!" Ed shouted. "I will not! You're the one who's being mean!"

"You are behaving very badly. I'm not coming out until you apologize."

Ed felt tears welling up in his eyes. He had never been able to even imagine a world where his father would treat him this way, and he had the terrible feeling that he was losing something. He didn't understand it, was too young to comprehend it, but something inside him knew that whatever was on the other side of that door, it wasn't his father anymore. A pang of fear seized him. More than anything in the world, he wanted his father to put his arms around him and tell him this was all just a big mistake, and that everything would be all right.

"I hate you," he said. "I hate you! I hate you! _I hate you!_"

He kicked the door, still screaming as loudly as he could. When at last he ran out of steam, he subsided into stifled sobs and stared at the unyielding door, waiting for some kind of response, some kind of reaction to show that his father was hurt by those words. Instead, there was a long silence that stretched out until it became unbearable. Ed turned silently and walked to his room.

Ed owned a backpack. His father had given it to him last September when he'd seen all the older children getting ready to go to school and decided he needed one, too. It had pictures of his latest superhero obsession of the week on it, and had been his proudest possession for a while before something else had caught his attention. Now Ed dug it out of the bottom of his closet. He stuffed a few of his favorite toys in it, three T-shirts with cartoon pictures on it, and his deck. Then he went to the kitchen and collected another apple and the rest of the cookies, along with a can of soda from the fridge. He walked back into the hallway.

"I'm running away," he told his father's door. "And I'm never coming back!"

There was silence from the other side of the door. Ed gave up and walked out of the apartment. He closed the door behind him. He began walking down the hallway towards the elevator. Then he stopped because the buttons were too far away for him to reach, so he stood and waited until the doors opened and one of his neighbors stepped out into the hallway.

"Hi there, Ed," he said cheerfully. "Where are you going?"

"I'm running away from home," Ed told him.

The neighbor gave Ed an indulgent smile that made Ed want to kick him in the shins.

"Sounds like fun," he said. "Better not go too far, though. Your father will get worried about you."

"No," said Ed seriously, "he won't."

He rode the elevator back to the ground floor of the apartment building, slipped past a bored receptionist who was too busy reading a magazine to pay attention to him, and darted outside into the world.

He ran away. For the first hour or so, it wasn't so bad. He walked down the streets he was familiar with and thought about where he would go when he was finished running away. Joining the circus seemed like an option - he was sure he had heard people talking about running away to join the circus. There was always the chance he would fall through a portal to another world and end up becoming a hero. That was what happened to people on television and in movies. He would have some adventures and make some friends and when he came home his father would have realized that he was wrong and everything would be okay again. It wouldn't take long. Movies like that never lasted much more than an hour or two. Ed walked until he was tired, and then found a place where he could stop to eat his apple and cookies. The soda had gotten warm, and spilled bubbles on his shoes when he opened it, but he was thirsty and drank it anyway. His father said sodas were unhealthy and didn't let him have them except on special occasions, like when they ordered out for pizza, so he felt it went nicely with his act of defiance even if it didn't taste as good when it was hot.

When he was done eating, he started walking again. Stopping to rest had only given him time to realize how tired his feet were, and it was getting harder to keep going. He could feel a blister beginning on his heel from the new shoes with pictures of Spiderman on them that he had insisted his father buy for him even though they didn't fit quite right. It was getting dark, too - summer was nearly over, and the day had turned overcast as he walked. Now that the sun was beginning to set, it was no longer as pleasantly warm as it had been, and Ed was wearing nothing warmer than a T-shirt and shorts. A cool wind had sprung up, smelling of rain, and thunder rumbled overhead. Ed shivered a little as he trudged along.

_I need to go inside,_ he realized, but where could he go? He no longer knew where he was. The street was full of unfamiliar shops, most of them already closed for the day. He tried the door of one of them, but it was locked up tight. Ed sat in front of the door and wondered if his father had noticed he was gone yet, and if he was going to come looking for him. He decided he should turn around and go home to find out.... but which way was home? He had turned several corners, and now he had no idea how to get back. He was lost, and it was dark.

It began to rain.

Ed began to walk again, sniffling and feeling hot tears run down his cold face, mixing with the rainwater. He was getting hungry again, but there was nothing left to eat. He was tired and limping and cold, but there was no shelter, nowhere to rest. It was looking less and less like anyone was going to rescue him, and more and more like he was just going to wander up and down these strange dark streets forever.

"Nobody wants me," he said, and his voice was swallowed up by the rushing of the driving rain. "Nobody wants me. Nobody wants me..."

At last, he stumbled into an alley that was more or less sheltered by the overhanging roof of one of the buildings. It was not warm or dry there, but it was less cold and wet than any other place, and there Ed gave up and sat down to cry until he couldn't cry anymore. When he was done, he wiped his face on the hem of his soggy shirt, lay his backpack down for a pillow, and he slept.

He was awakened sometime later by a light shining on his face. He opened his eyes slowly, uncertain why exactly why he felt so cold and wet, and why his bed was so hard. Then he woke up the rest of the way and remembered where he was, and opened his eyes to see what was going on. It was still raining, still night, but now someone was holding an umbrella over him and shining a flashlight. Ed sat up and realized that the someone was not his father, or even an adult, but a child like himself. Not quite, though. This one was older than Ed, and had long dark hair and long-lashed eyes that made it difficult to tell at first glance if the person was male or female. A further look revealed that the newcomer's eyes were violet, a brilliant hue that Ed had never seen in any other person's eyes before, and they were glowing slightly.

"Don't be afraid," the stranger said, and the voice made Ed decide it was male. "You're all right now. I'm here to help you."

Ed's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Are you an angel?" If it was, he wanted no part of it. Angels in movies tended to be cloyingly nice, and the last thing Ed wanted was to be patronized by some pretty otherworldly thing that had no problems of its own to deal with.

The stranger looked wryly amused.

"I'm a boy with a flashlight and an umbrella," he answered simply. Now that he was getting used to the voice, Ed could distinguish and accent to it, very faint but noticeable. "You may call me Saiou."

"Oh," said Ed. "I'm Edward Phoenix. Ed."

"Edo?"

"_Ed._"

"That's what I said," the other boy replied.

Ed decided not to press the issue. He supposed he could handle being Edo if it would get him out of this situation.

"What are you doing out here in the rain?" Saiou continued.

"I ran away," said Ed - or Edo, as the case may have been. "My father doesn't want me anymore."

"Ah. We have something in common, then," said Saiou. He sat down next to Edo. "My father doesn't want me either. What about your mother?"

"Haven't got one," said Edo. "She died when I was little."

"I see. And no grandparents or aunts or uncles?"

Edo shook his head. "Nuh-uh. Just my dad, and now he's..." Edo trailed off, sniffled, and rubbed furiously at his eyes. "I'm not crying."

Saiou nodded, and did not say anything annoying like "Of course you aren't," in that sweet tone that was meant to be comforting but really made Edo want to hit people. Edo was beginning to like Saiou. In a world that had stopped making sense, it was wonderful to find someone sane.

"Don't worry. You have me now," said Saiou. "From now on, I will be your shelter, and your light in dark places. As long as you need me, I am here."

He got up again and offered Edo his hand.

"Come. Let's find a place where we can be warm and dry. Are you hungry?"

Edo thought about it and realized he was desperately hungry. He took Saiou's hand and let him help him to his feet.

"I don't suppose you have any money," said Saiou as they began to walk.

Edo shook his head.

"Ah, well. We'll ask someone," Saiou said. "What would you like to eat?"

"A bacon cheeseburger," said Edo promptly, "with extra pickles. And a chocolate shake."

"Then let us go find someone to buy us one."

"I don't think it works that way," said Edo.

Saioh smiled. His eyes glittered in the dark. "It does for me."

They walked a few blocks until they came to a fast-food restaurant. It was mostly empty, but Saiou caught sight of a balding businessman in a cheap suit and approached him confidently.

"Hello," he said to the man. "You wish to buy a newspaper."

The man's face took on a blank expression, and he nodded and walked over to the newspaper vending machines near the front door, and began feeding coins into one of them. Saiou followed him with a puzzled Edo in tow.

"Now," said Saiou, "you will go inside and buy dinner for yourself and for us."

The businessman nodded and walked into the restaurant, holding the door so the boys could follow him.

"How do you _do_ that?" Edo whispered as they stepped inside.

"I just do," Saiou replied.

The man stopped at the register and looked kindly, if a bit blankly, down at Edo and Saiou.

"And what would you boys like for dinner?" he asked them.

Edo relayed his request for a burger and milkshake. Saiou requested the same, minus the pickles, and asked politely for another to take home and eat later. The businessman acquiesced to everything, and ordered a sandwich and coffee for himself. They found a plastic table in a far corner of the restaurant and sat down to eat.

"Now," Saiou told him, "you will eat your food and read your newspaper. You will not listen to or remember anything my friend and I say to each other."

The man nodded agreeably, unfolded his paper, and began to eat.

"All right, now we can talk," said Saiou. He began to eat with enthusiasm that was somewhat at odds with the dignity he had conducted himself with so far.

"You put a spell on that man," Edo said, not disapprovingly.

"Not a spell," Saiou corrected. "I just told him what to think. Most people, I have learned, go through their lives without ever being sure, and are relieved to find someone who can decide for them."

Edo wasn't sure if that made sense or not, and decided to let it be.

"Why did you come looking for me?" he asked instead. "How did you know where I was?"

"It's one of my gifts," said Saiou. "I'm a fortune teller - I can read the future through my cards. They told me that you would be there, and that you would need my help, so I came looking for you." He paused to dab ketchup off his chin. "The cards did not tell me exactly what manner of trouble you are in. Would you mind very much telling me why you were in that alley?"

Edo cast a glance at the man with the newspaper.

"He won't hear you," Saiou assured him. "He's off in his own little world."

To prove it, he reached out and waved a hand in front of the businessman's face. The man never so much as blinked.

Edo wasn't sure whether to be relieved about this or not. It opened up all kinds of bothersome possibilities. If Saiou could do something like that to a wandering businessman, why not do it to him? He might even be under Saiou's control right now and not even know it...

"No," said Saiou. "I'm not controlling you. You have my word of that."

"How do I know?" asked Edo suspiciously.

"Because if I were controlling you, I wouldn't let you think about it," said Saiou. "Do you think he knows he's being controlled? He thinks he's having a late dinner and listening to a couple of children playing let's-pretend. Anyway, I don't think I could control you if I wanted to. You are still a child, and haven't learned how to lie to yourself like grownups do. I can't control someone who isn't willing to let themselves be controlled." He smiled a little. "I can, however, read your mind, sometimes. Not all of it, though."

Edo nodded. He was starting to get used to the idea of a friend with magical powers. Now that he was warm and dry and well-fed again, his fantasies about being whisked away to magical otherworlds was beginning to look a bit more realistic to him.

"Could you fix my dad, then?" he asked hopefully.

"I could try," said Saiou thoughtfully. "I can't promise anything, but I can try..."

"Let's try now," said Edo eagerly. "Please?"

Saioh looked hesitant for a moment. Then he nodded.

"I'll try," he said. "But not tonight. Let me have some time to figure out what I'm up against. Besides, my sister is waiting for me. I promised I'd come back to her as soon as I found you."

"You have a sister?" asked Edo, momentarily distracted.

"Yes. Mizuchi is her name. You will meet her soon," Saiou promised. "Stay with us tonight, and tomorrow I will see if there is anything I can do to help your father."

Edo nodded. Everything would be all right in the morning. He finished his cheeseburger.

"I'm done now," he said.

Saiou nodded and rolled up the wrapper from his meal - the actual food had vanished a long time ago. He looked at the businessman.

"The money that is missing from your wallet, you gave to a children's charity. You feel good about this. You will not remember seeing me or Edo once we leave."

The man nodded vaguely and went on looking at his paper. Saiou picked up the bag with the last hamburger in it and led the way out of the restaurant. He led the way confidently through a maze of streets, holding the bag in one hand and the umbrella in the other, giving Edo the all- important job of carrying the flashlight. It was still raining, but it was only a light mist that fell with no sound, and only served to show up the beam of light as Edo flashed it up and down the sidewalk.

Eventually, they came to a hotel. It looked expensive, and Edo gawked at it. He'd never been in a hotel before. While he stared, Saiou casually closed his umbrella and shook it dry before pushing open the door to the lobby. He walked confidently into the grand foyer and stopped to look at Edo until he caught up. They walked across the room without attracting any attention, and Saiou used a key card to make the elevator open for him. Edo didn't bother asking how a lone boy found money to afford a nice hotel like this one. He was learning.

Saiou led him to a room and knocked on the door.

"Mizuchi, I'm back. I brought him."

The door opened, and Edo found himself looking at a girl no older than he was. Her hair and eyes were darker than Saiou's, but he could tell at a glance that the two were siblings.

"That's him?" she asked. "He's younger than I thought he'd be."

"He'll grow," Saiou assured her. "I brought food. I'm sorry it's cold."

"That's all right. I'm just glad you're back safe," said Mizuchi.

Edo's face fell a little. He was remembering again that there was no one at home who was hoping he would come back safe.

Mizuchi continued, "And I'm glad he's here now, too." She turned to Edo. "Hello. I'm Mizuchi. What's your name?"

The boy smiled. "Edo."

* * *

Mr. Phoenix was not sure how he felt about the situation. Hungry, for starters - he wasn't quite sure when his last meal had been. He wasn't even entirely sure what time of day it was, other than daytime. He'd been up all night, but he wasn't tired. How could he possibly sleep with the sunlight beaming through his studio windows? It was the perfect time for getting work done, and he had so much to do. Scattered all around the workshop were the fruits of his labors: more drawings than he usually produced in a month, placed wherever he could look up at them in the rare moments when his attention strayed from his drawing board. His drawing hand ached from being used so long without a break. He'd never felt so inspired. Usually after he'd finished a work, he had to stop for a while to regather his energies before he could begin again, but for the last few days, it seemed no sooner had he finished one picture when he found another one in his mind begging to be let out. Somehow every line found its way into the proper place, every shadow and highlight was perfect. His eraser sat unused at the far corner of his desk. It felt like the best day of his life.

That bothered him slightly.

"I really should check on Ed..." he told himself, looking reluctantly down at his half- finished drawing. He had the paranoid sense that if he walked away from it now, he would forget what he'd intended to do with it and never get it back.

_But he's my son..._

He realized that he didn't know when Ed had last eaten. He dimly remembered Ed screaming at him, but he had been quiet since then, so he had simply assumed that everything was fine with him.

A voice in his mind whispered, _He's a smart boy. He can take care of himself. You have work to do._

_But he's only a child,_ he told himself.

_He's in your way. He's keeping you from doing your great work. You should be glad he's leaving you to work in peace. He'll still be there when you're finished._

_When will I be finished?_

He couldn't come up with an answer for that. He shook his head tiredly.

"I'm talking to myself. I really do need to get some rest."

Regretfully, he put down his pencil and slid off of his chair, hearing bones click as long- disused joints were put in motion again. He winced. He had definitely been sitting still too long.

_I'll talk to Ed. I'll make lunch - order a pizza, maybe. Take the afternoon off. I'll rest a bit, and then I can start fresh tomorrow..._

With that thought in mind, he left his office and went looking for his son. He tried Ed's bedroom first, and found it empty. Since he had never gotten around to making the bed up yesterday (or, truth be told, for several days before that) he could not tell if the bed had been slept in or not. He investigated the kitchen and the living room with a similar lack of success. Then he sat down and tried to think of where else he could look, because the truth was that he still couldn't get his mind around the fact that Ed might be really be gone. He sat there a long time, letting it sink in.

Just before he was reaching the point of panic, he heard the sound of the front door opening. Relief washed over him, and he got up and hurried to give Ed a lecture on disappearing like that without telling where he was going.

Only it wasn't Ed. Standing on the doorstep was an unfamiliar boy, a few years older than Ed, with long dark hair and surprising violet eyes.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Mr. Phoenix demanded.

"My name is Takuma Saiou," said the boy. "Are you the father of Edo Phoenix?"

"Edo... You know where Ed is? Do you have him?" asked Mr. Phoenix, torn between anxiousness and anger. "Tell me where he is! I'm warning you..."

The boy held up a hand. He was very calm, which disturbed Mr. Phoenix. He was not used to children so young behaving with such adult mannerisms. It gave him a disturbing feeling that there was more going on than what he was seeing.

"Your son is safe," said Saiou. "He is currently residing in a hotel room not far from here. He is being given every possible care and is in no distress. And it was not I who took him. No one did - he left you of his own free will."

"You're lying," siad Mr. Phoenix, but his voice lacked confidence. Somewhere in the corners of his mind, he was remembering the sound of someone screaming that they hated him...

"I am not. Furthermore, you know I am not, so let us be honest with each other," Saiou replied. "I feel it is not in his best interests, but Edo wishes to return to you, and I have promised to do what I can."

To tell the truth, Saiou had a feeling that all of this was a very bad idea. He had not wanted to interfere with Edo's father at all, except that Edo had asked it of him and it would be a poor way to start their friendship not to at least try. It hadn't seemed like a difficult task while he had been safely in his hotel room on the other side of town, but now that he was standing here in the man's presence...

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Mr. Phoenix, "but if you don't tell me where my son is right now, I'm calling the police."

"The police will not help you. If I command them not to, they will not even see me," Saiou replied. "This is between the two of us... and whatever is lurking in your mind."

"What?"

"There is a force in your mind," Saiou repeated, more confidently. "It will not be safe to leave Edo with you until it is gone... and I intend to get rid of it."

Saioh reached out with his mind to touch the thing that burned behind Mr. Phoenix's eyes, intending to give it a push and force it to go elsewhere. Instead, it pushed back. Saiou gave a wail of pain, feeling the thing burning his mind with plumes of white fire.

_You stay out of this, brat,_ the fiery thing hissed at him.

Saioh whimpered, feeling that voice cut through his mind like a red-hot knife. Sparks danced before his eyes. Whatever the thing was, it was stronger than he'd realized. He gritted his teeth and pushed harder.

_Leave him,_ Saiou ordered. _You're not wanted here._

_Oh, but I am. He loves me. I inspire him. He's happier now than he's ever been._

_That is none of my concern. Go away._

_No._

White flames seared across Saiou's mind, and he cried out, the high-pitched wail of a child in pain. Blood began to trickle from his nose. His vision now had a blurry dark edge around it, and he tried desperately to keep the world in focus.

_You aren't worth my time,_ the flaming thing hissed. _Go away before I grow annoyed with you._

_You go away first._

Saiou pushed with all his might, recklessly burning through energy. A pale violet aura glowed around him, matching the pure white one that had begun to shine around Mr. Phoenix. The rest of the room seemed to have faded into shadow, as though the two of them were suspended in a pale void. Saiou's breath came in ragged gasps, and he could feel his heart pounding arrhythmically in his chest. Any moment, he was sure, he was going to pass out on the floor, but he couldn't do that because there was no telling what the white creature would do to him while he was helpless. He groped for something to hold on to and miraculously managed to get one hand around a door frame that he could no longer see, because all that was left in his vision was a hazy white world with the silhouette of a man at its center. Mr. Phoenix didn't even look winded. His expression was perfectly blank, his eyes nothing more than two points of brilliant light.

_You are strong,_ said the light. _If you had been a few years older, perhaps I could have used you... but this man is more useful to me now than you are. Leave, before I decide that you are too dangerous to let live._

For the first time in his life, Saiou was forced to admit that he was up against something far more powerful than himself. That fact hurt almost as much as the ache in his head left by the light's burning touch. He began to back away.

_That's right, run away,_ the light jeered. _Run away and take the worthless boy with you. He was only cluttering up the place._

_I'll take him,_ Saiou replied, _and someday I'll bring him back, and then you will pay for this._

His only answer was the sound of the light's laughter. Saioh staggered out of the room, tripping and bumping into things, unable to tell even where the walls were because his eyes were still so dazzled. The front of his shirt was wet with blood, but he didn't notice. All he could think of was getting away from the foul thing inhabiting Mr. Phoenix's body.

Meanwhile, Mr. Phoenix was quietly coming around, wondering what exactly he had been doing. He vaguely recalled he had been looking for something, but now he no longer knew what it had been.

_Was I looking for Ed?_ he wondered. _I guess I'm just not used to him not being here... but he's better off where he is..._

Not that he was entirely sure _where_ his son was, but he was quite certain that he was in good hands. Someone had come and offered to take care of him, someone completely trustworthy so he didn't have to worry. He wouldn't have put Ed into the care of anyone he didn't trust completely.

_Now you can get some work done without distractions,_ he told himself - or at least, a voice he thought of as his own did. _You can draw all day and night, if you want, and nothing can ever stop you...._

_Yes,_ he thought dreamily. That sounded wonderful. Nothing to think about ever again but the beautiful pictures in his mind. He walked back into his office with a faraway expression on his face and a peculiar pale light in his eyes.

* * *

Mizuchi was waiting anxiously. Usually, she could keep track of her brother by feeling for his aura - no matter how far away he was, she could sense him and know that he was all right. A few minutes ago, though, she had felt his aura flare wildly and then dwindle until she wasn't even sure it was there at all. Such a thing had never happened before, and it was all she could do not to panic. Edo didn't seem to know what was going on, and Mizuchi lacked the words to explain it so that he would understand, so they simply waited together in silence.

Then the door to their hotel room opened and Saioh staggered in.

"Takuma!" Mizuchi cried, running forward to help prop him up. "Brother, what happened?"

"You're _bleeding_," said Edo, wide-eyed.

Saiou raised his head, his eyes still unfocused.

"I fought," he said hoarsely. "There is... a thing, a white light, in his mind... It is evil... It's too strong for me. I tried to make it go away, but it hurt me... I hurt..."

"Let me," said Mizuchi. Pale violet light flared around her hands as she passed some of her power into him. Saiou began to breathe a bit more easily.

"Thank you," he said. He looked up to Edo. "I'm sorry I failed you. I had no idea how strong that thing would be."

Edo said nothing. He was still gawking at the blood on Saiou's shirt.

"Are you going to be all right now?" Mizuchi asked.

"For now," said Saiou. "We can't stay here. That thing is angry. We need to go somewhere far away, where we'll be safe, and Edo has to come with us."

"But..." Edo began. He wasn't sure what he was going to say. That this was his home? That he had never even spent the night outside of this city? That his father would worry about him? He looked back at the blood that was still drying on his friend's face and clothing. Edo had never thought his gentle father could do something like that to anyone, but... things were obviously different now.

"We will come back, right?" he asked. "Someday?"

"Someday," Saiou promised. "When we are both stronger, we will come back and save your father. I promise."

"Then let's go," said Edo. He put on a brave smile. "It can be an adventure."

A few hours later, the maid came to clean their room, only to find it pristine and empty. She remarked upon this to her supervisor, who checked her records and discovered no indication that the room had been occupied that day. When, the next day, a policeman came by making inquiries about a young boy who had been kidnapped, the establishment was able to helpfully and courteously explain that no such person had been seen.

**To Be Continued...**


	2. Transfer

**Transfer**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Pegasus was listening. He was rather good at that, or at least people gave him credit for being so. It had been several years since he'd lost his Eye, but he _had_ picked up on a few things while he'd carried it. The attitude that made people consider him a good listener was really a product of him watching closely for all the little cues he had picked up over the years that would help him guess whether what they were telling him matched up to their innermost thoughts.

Of course, he didn't need much expertise to know when he was annoying someone. He had a lot of experience with that. Sometimes he even did it on purpose. Today, however, was not one of those times.

"I really am impressed with your work ethic, Mr. Phoenix," he said, "but I really do prefer quality to quantity. You've submitted five times as many designs in the past few years as any of my other artists, but there are times when I feel you could benefit from slowing down and taking a bit more time with your work."

"I _do_ take time," said Mr. Phoenix. "I'd never submit a design unless I was sure it was exactly what I wanted it to be." His tone held a hint of challenge, and Pegasus frowned slightly.

"I'm not saying your work is _bad_," he replied. "On the contrary. It's all very good, on a technical level. I just feel that they've been missing something. It's been going on for a while now, really, but I thought I would give you some time to work through it on your own. I know how it is - you get stuck on a theme and keep reworking the same idea over and over and over and... well, you get the idea, don't you? But it is possible to work a good idea to death."

"My ideas are good," said Mr. Phoenix.

"Indeed they are," Pegasus agreed brightly. "You just have too many of them. Tell you what, we'll make a deal. Draw me something _new_, something I haven't seen before, and I guarantee that whatever it is, I'll accept the design. Since you obviously have plenty of spare time, you can rework your pet projects to your little heart's content when you're not working for me. But - let me remind you of this - you _do_ work for me, and that means I get a say in what you draw. And frankly, I have a short attention span and you're boring me."

Mr. Phoenix looked irritated by that. Then again, he had been looking irritated before. At least now Pegasus was _actually_ trying to annoy him.

"I'll use this one and this one and this one," said Pegasus, tapping several of the sketches lying on his desk, "but the rest have got to go."

"But... that's a month's work..." Mr. Phoenix protested as the rest of his sketches were shoved off the desk and into a trash bin.

"Don't look at it as a loss!" said Pegasus cheerfully. "Think of it as shedding your skin! Casting away the cocoon! Bursting forth into a brave world! I want to see new, fresh, and exciting! I'd like to be surprised, but I'll settle in the short term for something other than mind- boggling tedium. Otherwise, you're fired."

"I understand," said Mr. Phoenix, his voice tight. "I won't waste any more of your time, then."

"See that you don't," said Pegasus. "My time is very important, and not to be wasted. Except by me. Farewell! Good luck! See you next time!"

He smiled and waved cheerfully as his employee left the room. However, as soon as he was gone, he let his silly manner drop. He leaned on his desk for a moment, his chin propped in his hands as he stared off into middle distance. Then he seemed to come to a decision. He sat up and pressed a button hidden beneath his desk.

Immediately, two doors opened on either side of his office, and two men walked in. They were identical down to the last detail: both tall and thin, with narrow, intelligent faces. Both had slightly untidy seafoam-green hair that fell well past their waists, and they looked out at the world with identical cinnamon-colored eyes.

"Well, my boys," said Pegasus, "I suppose you were watching?"

"Of course."

"Always."

Pegasus nodded. "I shouldn't have asked, should I? If I can't count on my dear little brothers, who can I count on?"

The twins, Yakou and Gekkou Tenma, weren't actually his brothers, but it suited him to call them such, and it suited them to accept the title. They had been orphaned children when Pegasus had first found them, and had recognized their skill in gaming and game design. He'd adopted them, giving them the name "Tenma" as a joke that most of the world hadn't gotten yet. They weren't the only ones he had taken in and educated to suit his own needs, but these two were his favorites. Gekkou, the elder twin, had a steady personality and gentle ways that led people to trust him. He was inclined to be shy around people who weren't his brother or Pegasus, and rarely ventured out in public except on Pegasus's work, but the people he spoke to generally liked him almost at once. By contrast, Yakou was intense, ambitious, and easily moved to passionate emotions. He had a cunning mind, learning quickly and making keen observations about everything that went on around him. All they really had in common were their looks, their devotion to Pegasus and Industrial Illusions, and their talent for dueling. If Crocketts was Pegasus's strong right hand, these two were his eyes and ears, and he trusted them as though they were his brothers by blood rather than by name.

"You can always count on us, Pegasus," said Yakou fervently. "But what did you call us for? Is something wrong?"

"Tsk, tsk! I thought you of all people would notice," said Pegasus. "Gekkou, have you any opinions?"

"He seemed a bit put out," said Gekkou. "I don't think he's anything more than the usual disgruntled employee."

"Maybe you had to be looking into his eyes," said Pegasus. "Mark my words, there's something riding that man. I know the look - well, I've had it often enough myself. He has something eating him, and whatever it is, I don't trust it one little bit."

"Are you going to fire him, then?" asked Gekkou.

"Not yet. Of course not! I don't need you two to help me fire one simple artist, even a belligerent one," said Pegasus. "No, I just want to find out a bit more about our talented friend. Gekkou, do some snooping for me and see if you can find out a bit more about his background. Yakou..." He fished in his pocket and withdrew a small key, which he tossed to his helper. "Go to my private library and do a bit of research for me. Specifically I'd like you to bring me anything you can find regarding spirit possession and the like."

The twins exchanged glances.

"You think he's _posessed_?" asked Gekkou, raising an eyebrow. "Obsessed, I'll grant you, but... that's an awfully large leap to make."

"I hope it's a large leap," said Pegasus. "All the same, this is reminding me of something, and I'd like to check all the bases. Particularly any entries dealing with..."

He paused and fished around amid the sketches he had trashed, and fished out one of them. It was a beautiful but faintly disturbing image of a glowing galaxy of swirling stars.

"Light," he finished.

* * *

To the outside world, Saiou had learned how to make himself look highly respectable. He dressed well and expensively, maintained a dignified and faintly mysterious manner, and generally managed to appear a good deal older and more experienced than he actually was. No one had yet managed to pin down where he'd gotten his education, but everyone seemed to agree that it must have been excellent, judging by the breadth of his knowledge - he seemed to know something about everything, as well as having keen insight into the minds of his fellow human beings. His judgement in matters of dueling was so good that he was occasionally accused of cheating, but allegations slid off of him like water and were always dropped quickly when no proof ever materialized. It helped that he made his living as the manager of pro-dueling darling Edo Phoenix, whose skills could not be questioned.

To the world inside his home, however, Saiou had learned that he had better get breakfast done on time unless was willing to risk having Edo do it for him, and most of the time he wasn't.

That particular morning, he was standing in the kitchen in his bathrobe and slippers, giving the whole of his concentration to the preparation of a bowl of eggs. He had almost finished when he was distracted by the sound of footsteps coming from upstairs, and he looked to see Edo descending the staircase. In that moment of carelessness, an egg slipped out of his fingers. He made an irritated noise, and the egg stopped mid-plummet.

"Here, let me get that for you," said Edo, plucking the egg out of midair and handing it back to Saiou.

"Thank you," said Saiou politely, and went back to his cooking with a faint smile.

For the past few years, Edo had been living with Saiou and his sister, and somehow it had never seemed to dawn on him that it was odd to live in a household where people did the cleaning by simply waving a hand and making things jump back into the places they belonged, or could summon a duplicate out of a mirror to help fold the laundry. If anything, Edo seemed to find himself disappointingly normal in comparison. It was possible that some of his success in life, as a duelist and everything else, was that because he felt he was so very ordinary, he also felt he needed to work that much harder to achieve his goals. The end result was that at the age of fifteen, Edo was already a respected duelist, as well as an accomplished athlete and star student.

Saiou would be the first to tell anyone who asked, though, that Edo could not cook.

"So what's for breakfast?" asked Edo. "I don't suppose you need a hand, do you?"

"No, I have things quite under control," Saiou assured him. "You can set the table, if you wish."

"All right," said Edo. He laughed. "One of these days, I _am_ going to learn to cook."

"No," said Saiou. "I checked. You're not."

Edo laughed again as he began gathering up dishes. "I never know when to take you seriously sometimes."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Saiou primly. "I am always very serious."

"Sure," said Edo. He began setting the table, laying out plates and utensils with precision that would have been more fitting to a five-star restaurant than a simple breakfast for three, but Edo had never been one to do things by halves.

"If only your fans could see you now," said Saiou as he began whisking the eggs. "Wouldn't they be scandalized to see the noble Edo Phoenix sullying his fair hands with such menial chores?"

"Not much more than they would be to see his illustrious manager making scrambled eggs," Edo retorted.

"Hmph. Shows what you know," said Saiou. "I am not making scrambled eggs. This is going to be French toast."

"And that's why I'm not allowed to cook," Edo said.

Saiou couldn't resist a smile. Certainly people would be surprised if they saw how simply the little family lived. Between the two of them, they had managed to amass a respectable fortune - hardly enough to compare with people like Seto Kaiba or Pegasus Crawford, but enough that they could buy whatever they pleased without worrying. What it had pleased them to do was to buy a real house with room enough for three where they would never again have to deal with landlords wondering where the rent was. Edo's success had financed broad grounds full of trees and shrubs, and a water garden with fish, as well as a tall fence to put around it to keep out any prying eyes. A gardener came in every so often to tend to the plants, and a driver had been hired to take them wherever they wanted to go. Other than those two, no one besides the three residents ever passed through the front gates, and no one else at all was allowed inside the house. It was beautiful, luxurious, and as private as any place in a city like Tokyo could be. As far as Saiou was concerned, it was paradise.

_If life could go on like this forever, I would be perfectly content,_ thought Saiou, not for the first time.

As soon as Mizuchi arrived (she was always the last one to breakfast, but no one ever blamed her for lingering over her mirror in the morning), the three of them sat down at the table. Since the three of them kept different schedules for the rest of the day, this was one time when they were guaranteed to be able to sit down together, so they made the most of it. The rule was "no shop talk", so they chatted about inconsequential things until it was time for Edo's first appointment of the day.

"Coming with me today, Saiou?" he asked.

"You can handle this one on your own," Saiou assured him. "Just don't take the first offer they make. They'll offer twice your usual rate if you keep at them."

"Right. See you all later, then," said Edo offhandedly.

"I'll call you this afternoon after I've done my morning readings," Saiou told him. "We'll make further plans then."

"If you boys are going to talk business, you can do it outside," said Mizuchi. "Go on, shoo. I'll deal with the dishes this time."

They scattered - Edo to collect his things and head off to his meeting, Mizuchi to the kitchen to clean up, and Saiou to the garden. The weather was fair today, and if he was going to spend time poring over his cards, it would be pleasant to do it outdoors. He liked his garden. It was easy to imagine, there, that the world beyond the walls didn't exist. Eventually he would have to don his business wear and go out into the city to deal with Edo's career, but for a while he could sit here and be completely at peace.

He followed a gravel path to his favorite spot, a sun-warmed stone near the fish pond, where the sound of running water provided soothing background noise. The fish noticed his presence and swam to the surface, hoping for food, and he tossed a handful of crumbs to them before taking his seat. He took his Tarot cards from his pocket and shuffled them a few times. There were times when he would have sworn that the cards had a life and awareness of their own, and now he thought he could feel them stirring and awakening as he touched them. In fact, they seemed more alert than usual today, giving him the sense of a not-quite-voice clamoring for his attention. He frowned a little. They usually weren't quite so pushy, and he wasn't quite sure the fact that they were so talkative now was a good sign. He laid the deck-face down and began laying out a spread, choosing the pattern almost subconsciously. Cards looped around the surface of the stone in a loose spiral pattern - the Ouroboros spread, representing the great serpent that encircled the world.

He turned over the first card and studied it. It showed an image of a brightly burning star, but the card was reversed. Usually such a thing would be a sign of imminent disaster, a warning against putting faith in false hopes, but the image stirred something in his mind. The first card in this spread represented the beginning of a situation, and looking at the reversed star was bringing back memories...

"That white light... Is that what you're trying to tell me?" he murmured. It had been a long time since he had brought Edo back to Japan with him, and in that time he'd all but stopped thinking about Edo's father and the flaming entity that had controlled him. He had given it his attention, at first, but the more time that went by, the more he had let it slip from his mind. Now he felt a bit guilty about it, and he frowned at his cards. They were supposed to do his bidding; they weren't supposed to nag him about forgotten promises. Were they?

With a reluctance that was unusual for him, he began turning over the rest of the cards. His frown deepened.

"You have got to be joking," he said.

The cards, naturally, didn't respond. Saiou sighed. He may not have known everything, but he was reasonably certain that cards did not have a sense of humor. He did not find that thought particularly comforting.

"Fine. Be that way," he said, and scooped them all up and put them back in their pouch. He had other questions he had meant to ask, things Edo was probably going to want answers for later, but he was in no mood to give his attention to them. They probably weren't important now, anyway, not now that the cards had handed down their judgement. He stormed back into the house, his eyes glowing with annoyance.

Mizuchi met him as he came inside. She began to call out a greeting to him, perhaps to ask why he was back so soon, but she saw the look on his face and stopped.

"Bad news?" she asked instead.

"News," he answered. "Whether it is bad or not depends on your perspective, I suppose."

"That may be true, but it doesn't explain why you look like you just foretold the end of the world," said Mizuchi. "You didn't just foretell the end of the world, did you?"

"No. Worse than that," he answered. "We have to go to school."

Mizuchi gave him a quizzical look. "Why? What do we need to know that we could only learn in a school?"

"Nothing," said Saiou. "I never said we needed to learn anything. I just said we have to go - not to just any school, but to Duel Academia. There's someone there we need to find."

"Oh? We aren't taking in another foundling, are we?" asked Mizuchi, looking faintly amused.

"No, we are not," said Saiou. "We're giving one back. The cards say it's time for Edo to go home."

Without waiting for a response, he turned and marched up to his room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

The solitude did not make him feel any better. He tossed his cards onto his desk and dropped into a chair to fume. So it came to this, after so many years of tending to Edo, doing everything he could to make sure he was happy and well-cared for. More than that, he had loved Edo like a brother. He had almost managed to convince himself that the perfect existence he had maintained would last forever, but...

_Why do I have to give him back?_

Saiou and his sister had not always lived on their own. They had been part of a family, once. Mizuchi had all but forgotten them, but Saiou had been old enough, when he left, to remember. They had lived in a comfortable home in Kyoto - his mother, father, grandmother, Mizuchi, and him. He'd been happy there up until he had been four or five years old, and his powers had begun to settle. Before then, they had only come in spurts, brief visions that could be chalked up to a child's overactive imagination. Then one day he had discovered he could move things without touching them, and had spent a happy afternoon making leaves fall up back into the trees, until his grandmother had seen him at it and had hustled him back inside. He had been unable to understand why she had been so frightened, but he had learned after that point that he probably shouldn't let anyone see him making things fly. He learned a lot of things, after a while: that adults didn't like for him to read their minds; that they grew uncomfortable when he told them what was going to happen before it did. He hid as much as he could, even when he felt like he would explode if he didn't use this power that was simmering inside of him. Then his sister reached her fifth year and began seeing glimpses of the future in puddles and summoning her reflection out of mirrors to play with her. Their parents started whispering about evil spirits, even going so far as to drag them before the local priest to get his opinion. He had made grave proclamations and given them charms to hang around the house, and Saiou had almost wished they would work, just so everything would be normal again. But nothing changed.

Then one day Saiou's father, already irritated by something at work, had lost his temper with Saiou over some childish mishap and tried to strike him. Saiou, frightened, had panicked and reached into his father's mind and gripped it, and _twisted_. That was how he had realized for the first time that he couldn't just read people's minds - he could send his own thoughts into them, even to the point of making other people think what he wanted them to think and do as he wished them to do. As soon as he had realized what had happened, he released his father, but the damage was already done. His father declared him a freak and a demon and no child of his. That had been the last day Saiou spent with his family. He and Mizuchi had been turned out of their house without a second glance, to live or die as they would. They had lived, by their powers and their wits, but no help from anyone else, until Edo came along.

_People can't be trusted. I know that better than anyone. Why should I have to give Edo back to someone who couldn't take care of him the first time around? He hasn't even seen the boy in years. He doesn't know him anymore._ Lurking at the bottom of his mind was the not-quite-articulated thought, _He doesn't deserve him._

But what was he to do? Saiou had never been one to ignore the prompting of Fate, and now he was being told very clearly that the key to rescuing Edo's father lay on Academy Island with one of the students there. That rankled as much as anything else. Saiou had gotten used to thinking of himself as Edo's protector and dearest friend, and he resented the idea of a stranger - one his cards chose to identify only as The Fool - moving in and stealing his spotlight. What could an ordinary schoolboy do that Saiou couldn't?

Saiou didn't believe in tampering with the future. Now, though, he toyed with the notion of simply doing nothing. He could tell Edo to stay far away from that school, they would never meet this mysterious boy, and life would go on as it always did. Why shouldn't he? How could Edo's life possibly be better there than it was here?

But that was selfish thinking, and Saiou knew it. He felt dirty for even thinking about it, but it was still what he wanted to do anyway. He took a breath and shook his head.

_No. Whether you like it or not, Edo's father loved him before that white fire got hold of him, and you owe it to both of them to help. Besides, you made a promise to Edo. You can't break that._

Resignedly, he reached for his cell phone and tapped the button that would put him in touch with Edo.

"Hey, good timing," said Edo. "I just got out of my meeting. Everything went exactly the way you said it would... but you probably already know that."

"Yes," said Saiou absently. "Edo, I have been reading the cards. They seem to be of the opinion that we are neglecting your education."

"Oh, really?" said Edo. He sounded amused, as though suspecting Saiou was joking with him. "How so?"

"Apparently it is very important that you go to Duel Academia."

"You're kidding, right?" said Edo, laughing. "I'm a professional. I've got my own personal coach. I'm one of the best in the business. For that matter, I've got college degrees already. Duel Academia has nothing to offer me."

"Nevertheless, there is someone we need to meet there. And since you are of the correct age, and since I do not know yet how long our work there will take, I think it would be best if you enrolled."

Edo muttered something that was hard to hear over the phone, but his annoyance was palpable.

"Well, you've never steered me wrong before..." he said resignedly.

"Trust me," said Saiou, "I don't want to do this either."

* * *

Juudai had climbed a tree. Mostly he had climbed it because Professor Chronos was looking for him, and he had a feeling it had something to do with the sub-par quiz he had handed in because he'd been napping in class again and had missed the first few minutes of the test, and probably would have missed the whole thing if Shou hadn't resorted to surreptitiously throwing a pen at him while the teacher's back was turned. He did plan to make it up eventually, but there would be time for that later. Right now, he was just enjoying the fact that it was a clear day and nothing bad was happening, and he intended to enjoy it for all it was worth. He settled himself more comfortably on his tree branch and gazed out over the peaceful ocean.

There was a small boat on it. Juudai sat up and looked at it with interest. Perhaps this would be a good way to liven up his day. After making a thorough check to make sure that no one was looking at him, or for him, he slid off the branch and landed in a heap on the soft grass. He laughed at himself as he stood up and dusted the grass off his clothes, and then went loping off toward the docks.

Halfway there, he became aware that someone else was coming up the path from the other direction. For a moment, he debated the merits of diving into the shrubbery until the threat had passed, until he got a better look and realized that this person was no danger to him. He grinned and waved.

"Hey, Ms. Tome!" he called. "What's up?"

"Oh, hello, Juudai," she said. "I just got word that the mail ship is on the way in, so I'm off to get the mail."

"Need a hand?"

"Well, I wouldn't say no," Tome replied. She smiled and ruffled Juudai's hair. "You're such a kind boy."

"Whoa, hey, stoppit!" said Juudai, laughing and ducking away. He tried to put his hair back in order, failed, and decided it wasn't worth the effort. Tome laughed too. The two of them strolled down to the docks together, chatting amiably as they walked.

"Afternoon, Ms. Tome!" called the postman as he slipped his boat into the dock. "Looks like you found yourself a helper. Good thing, too - there's a lot of letters today."

"There always are, this time of year," said Ms. Tome. "Always parents worrying about children away from home for the first time..."

"I know how that is," said Juudai as he watched the mailbags being unloaded. "Last year my mom wrote me every day to nag me to brush my teeth and eat my vegetables. She never worried about me getting attacked by a vampire or destroyed by a demon. She just worried I wasn't wearing clean underwear... Wow. This really is a lot of mail. These people must have started writing the minute the plane took off."

He latched onto the largest of the mail sacks and slung it over his shoulder, staggering a little under its weight but quickly regaining his footing. He grabbed a second smaller one with his free hand, leaving the last and smallest for Ms. Tome. She gave him a grateful smile and led the way back up the hill to the main building. Juudai was sweating slightly by the time they finally made it to Ms. Tome's shop. He dumped the heavy bags onto a table in her back room before collapsing into a nearby chair.

"Whew! That was work," he said.

"I would have had to make three trips if I hadn't had your help," said Ms. Tome. "I'll tell you what - I still need to sort all these letters, but first why don't I get us some cookies and lemonade? You can have a snack before you go."

Juudai's eyes lit up. "Now you're talking!"

Within a few minutes, Juudai was happily working his way through a plate piled high with enough peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies for three people - or, in translation, enough for one hungry teenaged boy. A pitcher of lemonade stood close at hand, from which he and Ms. Tome helped themselves. She was busily sorting mail into stacks, and Juudai, put in a generous mood by the cookies, also scooped up a stack of mail to sort through.

"Where do these go?" he asked.

"Oh, you really don't have to do that. You've already been a big help," Ms. Tome replied. "But if you really don't mind.... Anything for teachers and staff go in this pile. The rest of them are sorted by dormitory. If you can't tell where it goes, just set it aside and I'll look it up later."

Juudai nodded and set about sorting. It was a relaxing sort of job - it reminded him a little of sorting through his cards, putting all the monsters and spells and traps in the right piles. It was interesting seeing which people he knew were getting letters. He amused himself for a while trying to imagine what was inside the letters he was piling up. Then his eye was caught by the corner of a large envelope that looked interesting, and he grabbed it and pulled it out.

"Hey, this has my name on it!" he exclaimed.

"Ooh, it looks important!" said Ms. Tome, leaning forward and adjusting her glasses for a better look. "Isn't that the Industrial Illusions logo?"

"You're right... Hey, it's from Hayato! It feels like I haven't seen him in months." He began tearing open the envelope and had a look inside. "There's a whole bunch of stuff in here. Looks like I'm supposed to share it with the rest of the gang."

"You run along and find your friends," Ms. Tome said. "You've helped enough already, and you don't want to keep them waiting!"

"Thanks, Ms. Tome! I'll go show them now," said Juudai, bouncing to his feet. He grabbed the last of the cookies and stuffed it in his mouth. "Thanks for the snack! See you later!"

He gave Ms. Tome a final wave and went rocketing up the path to Osiris Red.

"Guys! Hey, guys!" he shouted, as he rushed inside. He wasn't sure who he was shouting to yet, but Manjoume's new addition to the dorm had become the local hangout ever since Manjoume had put it there, and there always seemed to be someone hanging around. As he looked in, he found that he'd come at a good time - there seemed to be a study group going on. Asuka was sitting with a book on her lap, and Kenzan and Shou were listening attentively as she explained something to them. Manjoume was lurking on the sofa nearby. He didn't need any help with his homework - his grades were good enough already - but he still wasn't about to pass up a chance to spend time with Asuka, even if she wasn't actually paying any attention to him at the moment.

"What are you making so much noise about?" he asked, as Juudai banged his way into the room.

"Hayato sent us some stuff from California!" Juudai announced, waving the envelope around.

"Who's Hayato?" asked Kenzan.

"He's our old roommate," Shou explained as he scrambled to his feet. "He works for Pegasus at Industrial Illusions!"

"Wow! Maybe he sent some rare cards," said Kenzan, following him.

Shou stuck his tongue out at him. "He didn't send anything to _you_."

"Yeah, but I can still look! You'll let me look won't you, Aniki?" said Kenzan. He attempted to look pitiful, something he wasn't really designed to do.

"Everybody can look," Juudai promised. He carried the envelope over to the coffee table and dumped its contents out so that everyone could get a good look. Inside were a variety of photographs, several drawings, and a letter. While the rest of the group passed the pictures around and looked at them, Juudai picked up the letter and began to read aloud.

"Dear guys," he read, "I can't believe it's only been a few weeks since I left school. I feel like I haven't seen you all in years. Don't worry, though - I'm having lots of fun here! Pegasus is an easy guy to work for - he's nice to just about everybody. He gives me time in the afternoons to draw whatever I want. He promised me that the next time he's doing research in Australia, I can be part of the team. I was worried when I first came here and didn't know anybody and didn't speak the language very well, but there are people here from all over the world, not just America. We all live in a big apartment building together - me and the others who aren't old enough to live by ourselves yet. During the daytime we all go to work, and in the evenings we get lessons in art or dueling or whatever it is we're good at. I stay really busy but I'm still having a lot of fun. I'm making new friends here, but I still miss you guys. I'm sending some photos and stuff so you can see what everything is like. Oh, and some gifts for everybody! I made them on my day off. Anyway, you can write me at this address so tell me everything that's happening, okay? Hope to hear from you soon! Signed, your buddy Hayato."

The letter was augmented by a number of notations that Hayato had written on the back of his photographs, identifying them as "outside the building" or "my office" or "everyone at work".

"It looks like he's doing really well," said Shou, admiring the picture of Hayato's apartment. "My room isn't this nice."

"That's because you never clean it," Kenzan pointed out. He bent over to get a better look at the picture. "It is a nice room, though."

"He deserves it," said Juudai. "Hayato's a good guy. I wish you'd had a chance to meet him. Hey, we'll all have to take some pictures later, so Hayato can see Shou's new jacket and meet Kenzan. Well, not really meet him, but you know."

"I'll get my camera. Fubuki gave me a new one for my birthday," said Asuka. "This will be a good chance to try it out."

"Hm," said Manjoume. He was holding up one of the drawings that Hayato had included, one that had Manjoume's name written on the back of it. It depicted a dramatic image of a thunderstorm raging over a craggy mountain. "Looks like he's not completely wasting his time up there."

Before the discussion could continue much further, the door opened and Misawa sauntered in.

"Hey, you're just in time!" said Juudai. "We got a letter from Hayato, and we were going to take pictures to send back to him."

"Well, I have some news you can tell him when you write back," said Misawa. "I just went to Professor Chronos's office to return some reference materials, and I heard him talking on the phone with the someone. We're getting some transfer students this afternoon."

"This time of year?" asked Asuka. "School's only just started."

"Apparently it's some kind of late enrollment - a very special case," said Misawa knowledgeably. "I didn't catch the whole conversation but apparently whoever is going to be joining us is some kind of celebrity."

"Awesome!" said Juudai. "That'll be really good for the Osiris dorm. Transfer students always start here, right?"

"Not this time. Professor Chronos gave them a special dispensation to start in the Obelisk dorm," said Misawa. "For one thing, I got the impression that one of them is a lady."

"Well, this place could always use more cute girls," Kenzan opined. Catching Asuka's look, he said, "Not that the ones already here _aren't_ cute. I mean..." he trailed off, realizing that now Manjoume was glaring at him. "Is there any way out of this?"

"Become a monk," Shou suggested.

"Anyway, I thought you'd like to know," said Misawa. "I thought about going to the docks and watching for the boat to arrive, just to have the first look."

"Great idea!" Juudai agreed. "Let's go!"

"I thought we were supposed to take pictures," said Kenzan.

"We can take them there as well as anywhere," Juudai replied. "Come on! I want to go see the new people!"

Meanwhile, the new people were getting their first look at their new home. Aboard his private yacht, Edo leaned on the railing and watched as Academy Island drew nearer on the horizon.

"I have to admit, it doesn't look that bad," said Edo. "It's been a while since I've taken a vacation... It might be fun."

"It's not just a vacation," said Saiou, coming to stand behind him. "We're here looking for someone who can help your father. In the meantime, I expect you to conduct yourself as a model student. You have a reputation to uphold."

"I know, I know. You don't have to mother me," said Edo, but he was smiling faintly. "Is this job really going to take all three of us?"

"I'm the only one who is likely to recognize the one we're looking for when we find him," said Saiou, "and we couldn't leave Mizuchi home by herself. It will be best for us to stay together." He turned his gaze away from Edo, towards the island. It was close enough now that individual trees could be picked out. "Hopefully this will not prove too trying."

"We can handle it," said Edo confidently. "I did my research. The entire student body is less than two hundred people. There are less than a dozen teachers, some security guards, and then some people to do the cooking and cleaning and the rest. All together, that's less than three hundred people on that island. How long can it take to find the one we want?"

"Perhaps not long. Perhaps longer than we think. Finding him is not enough; we have to persuade him to help us, as well."

"You can do it. You can talk anyone into anything," said Edo.

"True," said Saiou with a hint of amusement, "but we're not looking for just anyone, are we?"

The boat glided into the dock, and Edo could see that there was a welcoming committee of sorts waiting for them. A tall blond man in a blue jacket was watching the ship approach with an expression that was entirely too pleased, while a shorter, stouter man harangued a group of students who stood nearby. Edo assumed they were students, anyway; they looked to be about the right age, and most of them were wearing uniforms. Edo couldn't see their expressions from this distance, but judging by the way they stood, most of them weren't particularly bothered by the little man shouting at them. It was rather amusing, watching him jump about waving his arms and getting red in the face while the students ignored him, all their attention focused on the boat.

_I have an audience,_ thought Edo, smirking a little. It seemed no matter where he went, he couldn't get away from his fans. Well, he would put on a good act for them. It really didn't pay to disappoint one's fans.

He and Saiou disembarked, followed a few moments later by Mizuchi. As soon as they touched land, the two teachers descended on them, lectures forgotten.

_They sure don't pick teachers for their looks around here, do they?_ Edo thought, knowing that Saiou would hear him. He was rewarded by a sense of disapproval mixed with amusement and grinned cheerfully.

"Welcome to Duel Academia!" the tall teacher gushed, reaching out to shake Edo's hand. "I am Acting Principal Chronos, and I will be more than happy to help you with anything-"

"Excuse me," said Saiou, smoothly putting himself between Edo and Chronos. "If Edo has anything he needs, it will be relayed through me."

"And who might you be?" asked the shorter teacher belligerently.

"I am Saiou Takuma, Edo's manager," Saiou replied. "I am here to make sure that Edo receives treatment appropriate to his status. Is that going to be a problem?"

"No, no, no, of course not, Signore Saiou," said Chronos, holding up his hands placatingly. "I can assure you that you will all receive the very best treatment available."

"I'm sure that will be... adequate," said Saiou grandly.

Chronos looked appalled and quickly began explaining just what kind of treatment could be given to a celebrity. Edo tuned it out; he was sure whatever they were offering would probably not be as good as home was, but he was equally sure he could live with it for however long it took to get matters sorted out. Mostly he just wished the teachers could shut up so he could go to his new room, unpack, and maybe take a shower.

He became aware of a presence at his side, and turned to see a boy in a red jacket looking at him.

"Hi!" said the boy. "So you're the new guy, huh? I'm Juudai! So... Which one of you is the celebrity?"

Edo simply stood and stared.

"You," he said, "have obviously not been watching enough TV."

"Not my fault," said Juudai with a shrug. "I mean, my dorm came with a TV but it only works if someone stands behind it to hold the antennas in place. Even then we don't see much."

"I see," said Edo doubtfully.

"Signore Juudai!" called Chronos, aghast. "Stop bothering him this instant! Don't you know who you're talking to?"

"Not really. He hasn't introduced himself yet," said Juudai, plainly unashamed.

Chronos looked scandalized. "For your information, this is none other than-"

"Edo Phoenix," said Edo, putting on his most innocent smile. "I just enrolled as a first year."

"I'm a second year!" said Juudai proudly. "I guess that makes me like your mentor or something, right?"

Edo had to stifle a laugh. Who did this guy think he was? Still, it might be fun to play along.

"Yeah, I guess you're right!" he said brightly. "Well, I'll count on you to help me if I run into any trouble, then!"

"No problem!" Juudai assured him. "And hey, maybe we can duel or something! Just don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're a new guy."

"Aw, not even just a little bit?" said Edo. "Well, I'll try my best, then!"

"That's the spirit!" said Juudai.

"That's quite enough of that," Chronos snapped. "We have a schedule to keep! And you have homework to do - I know because I gave it to you! Now, shoo!"

He waved his hands vigorously, and Juudai gave one last grin and a salute before sauntering back the way he had come, plainly in not much of a hurry. Edo just shook his head, still trying to suppress his mirth.

"He was sort of amusing," he said. He spoke more or less around Chronos's shoulder, so that he was addressing Saiou even though Chronos was standing between them. It was his polished technique of dealing with pompous people. "I think I will duel him later, when I have time, just to see what happens."

"Yes," said Saiou. "I think that would be worth the attempt." He glanced at Chronos. "Well? Were you going to show us to our rooms?"

Chronos was still apparently trying to work through the idea that the new celebrity on the island was more interested in a slightly clueless student than in him. The other teacher sighed in resignation.

"This way," he said, strutting up the path. Edo and Saiou strolled along after them, Saiou looking serene as usual and Edo still trying not to snicker. Mizuchi drifted quietly along behind them.

"They're really very nice," she said to Chronos, patting his shoulder consolingly, "once you get to know them."

Meanwhile, Juudai reconvened with the rest of his friends. Most of them were watching him like he'd just stepped out of a spaceship, but he didn't seem to notice.

"I think that went well," he said.

Manjoume shook his head. "Only you could do something that stupid and get away with it."

Juudai blinked. "What? What'd I do?"

"You were talking to _Edo Phoenix,_" said Shou, wide-eyed with amazement. "And you didn't get in trouble for it or anything?"

"He seemed nice," said Juudai. "What is he, some kind of a TV star or something?"

"He's a _duelist_," said Asuka patiently. "He's one of the best in the league. He's _the_ best in the under-twenty-five bracket."

"No way," said Juudai, laughing. "You heard him. He said he's not even very good at dueling! He wanted me to go easy on him! Why would he say that if he was a professional?"

His friends just looked at him.

"Should we tell him?" Kenzan whispered.

"No," said Manjoume. "Whatever you do, don't tell him."

Juudai wasn't listening.

"Anyway," he said, "Looks like Professor Chronos was too busy paying attention to the new people to remember I'm supposed to do makeup work for him. I lucked out!"

"And you're going to duel a celebrity," Manjoume chimed in. He smirked. "Can't wait to see that."

"Yeah, that's right!" said Juudai, eyes brightening with enthusiasm. "Yeah, I have a feeling this is going to be a really good year."

* * *

Few people realized just how many rooms were on Pegasus's floor of the Industrial Illusions main headquarters. He had wanted enough space and materials to let his creativity run rampant, and he had enough money to get what he wanted. Beyond his main office was a regular warren of rooms: spaces for painting or reading or testing new cards or just for sitting quietly and thinking (or hiding from unwelcome guests). Very few people who were not in his strict confidence ever got to see all of them - even the people who cleaned them were all given different keys so that none of them could get to more than a few rooms, and some areas were so strictly off-limits that Pegasus preferred to tidy them himself rather than let someone disturb anything. Mostly that meant they didn't get cleaned at all, but he didn't really care.

One of the most private rooms was his library. While his manor boasted an elegant library filled with classic literature and rare first editions, along with more popular titles and of course his encyclopedic collection of comic books, his office library was strictly for research. The books there covered a spectrum of topics ranging from history and science to folklore and legend. It was his retreat when he was stumped for ideas and needed inspiration. Very few others were allowed, but that wasn't his private library.

Hidden behind a particularly thick history book on an out-of-the-way shelf was a small keyhole, which could only be opened by a cleverly hidden silver key stashed inside the hollow cover of a book on the other side of the room. It was a rather handsome key, an old-fashioned one with a long barrel. Pegasus was very proud of it, because it would only work when inserted the wrong way around, head-first. Inserted the more traditional way, a computer chip hidden in its teeth would trigger a sensor and summon a number of men in dark suits to drag whoever was using it away and question them until they confessed to everything from breaking and entering to abducting Elvis. That was because beyond that door was Pegasus hidden stash of books and materials dealing with the occult. There were things in there that even he didn't like to deal with more often than he had to, and things that possibly would have gotten him arrested if anyone realized what they were and how he'd gotten them.

Pegasus found the key and opened the hidden door, watching with satisfaction as the bookshelf swung gently away from the wall.

"I thought I'd find you here," he said to the person inside the hidden room. "Pulling an all-nighter?"

"I'm still looking for the information you asked me for," said Yakou seriously, indicating a pile of papers covered in his cramped handwriting.

Pegasus laughed. "Dear boy, I asked you for information, not an encyclopedia on the subject. Give your hand a rest."

Yakou obediently put down his pencil and flexed his hand, grimacing a bit. "Perhaps I have been overdoing it..."

"Just a tad," said Pegasus. "Don't worry, you have my word that I will read every last bit of it when I have the time, but for now I will settle for a summation. But let's wait a bit and see if your brother decides to turn up."

"I called him to remind him," said Yakou. "He should be here shortly. You know how he is."

Pegasus nodded, knowing that while Yakou was the kind who made every second count, Gekkou was more inclined to lose track of the time or the date as he got caught up in some project. His ideas tended to be good if he was left in peace to pursue them, so Pegasus was generally content to let him glide along with little more than a nudge now and then.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Gekkou hurried up, carrying a clipboard.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, bowing to Pegasus.

"That's all right. We haven't been waiting long," Pegasus assured him. He ambled over to a nearby armchair and seated himself, sitting back with his knees crossed and fingers steepled, looking attentive. "So, who should go first, hm? Personally, my expectations are with Yakou, but it might be best to get Gekkou's report out of the way first. I could be wrong, after all. I hope I'm wrong," he added quietly. He looked thoughtful for a moment before snapping back to reality. "So, Gekkou, what did you find?"

"Nothing much of interest, I'm afraid," said Gekkou in his soft voice. He began reading off his paper. "Arthur Phoenix, age fourty-four, born in California. Majored in art and received moderately good marks. Married at age twenty-four to Ariana Fielding and had a son shortly afterwards. His wife died not long after that..." He trailed off uneasily and glanced at Pegasus, obviously uncomfortable with bringing up a subject that was likely to hit close to home with him. Pegasus only nodded and gestured for him to continue. "He lost his job, took several menial part-time positions, and according to some reports, took to drinking heavily, but he eventually snapped out of it and applied for a position here. Approximately two years after he began working here, his son was apparently abducted or ran away from home and was never seen again..."

"Interesting," said Pegasus. "I don't remember hearing about that."

"It was eight years ago, give or take," said Gekkou. "Shortly after Duelist Kingdom. You weren't in the best condition at the time."

"Nevertheless, I feel like I ought to have noticed if one of my employees had lost a child at the time. It's not like he lost a pencil or a briefcase or some such thing. Why wasn't there an outcry? Where were the police and the FBI and the CIA and the pictures on milk cartons?"

"There's a police record. I looked," said Gekkou. "It appears they searched and found no trace of where he'd gone."

"So he just shrugged, said 'Well, what can you do?' and went back to work, is that it?" said Pegasus. He frowned a little. "Well, far be it from me to tell anyone how to handle his grief, but..."

Yakou shrugged. "Some people are just bad parents."

"Possibly," said Pegasus, but he looked doubtful. "So, little brother, since we've heard what Gekkou has to say, what have you uncovered?" He glanced at the stack of paper. "_Summarize_, if you please."

"Ah. Right," said Yakou. He fidgeted with his papers as he selected his words. "I found references to a lot of things that might possess a person or otherwise control their actions, but only one associated with light.... Well, according to this, there's a force called the Light of Ruin that falls from the sky every few hundred years. It draws on the wickedness in human hearts and amplifies it to a tremendous degree and uses that to manipulate them. Some believe it originates from white holes in the universe. At any rate, every time it comes to Earth, it causes tremendous destruction - wars and similar. Its ultimate goal, as far as it's understood, is to destroy all darkness and bring the universe to a state of pure light." He stopped his recitation and looked up at Pegasus, apparently hoping for some word of praise.

"Very well done," Pegasus told him. "Not the kind of news I was hoping to get, but at least it was well researched - and thoroughly documented, no less."

"Are you sure this isn't just a little farfetched?" asked Gekkou. "Not that I'm doubting that there is such a thing as the Light of Ruin," he added quickly, because if there was one thing Pegasus had taught him, it was that magic was real and likely to show up in unexpected places, "but I haven't seen any real proof that there is anything at all unusual about the man."

"Neither have I," said Pegasus candidly. "He is, to all appearances, a very ordinary man who just happens to have a light fixation and apparently has taken the loss of his only living relative in remarkably good stride. Not bad, but odd. Odd enough for me to feel suspicious around him. If there is one thing I won't tolerate, it's something that's likely to bring harm to my company or my employees. All things considered, I think it might be time to call this one a loss." He lost his serious expression and leaned back in his chair, smiling unconcernedly. "He was starting to bore me anyway. Lately all his drawings look the same."

Yakou nodded agreement, which was no surprise. He tended to be jealous of people Pegasus paid attention to who weren't him.

"I suppose that will leave a gap in our art production team," Pegasus mused. "Ah, well. I can count on you both to fill in if we run short."

Both men assured him that they would do their best to be helpful. Pegasus smiled but deep down, he felt less than confident.

Nevertheless, the next morning, he gathered his nerve and told his secretary to summon Mr. Phoenix to his office. Pegasus swivelled in his chair, taking advantage of the time he had to be nervous without anyone watching him. No matter how much trouble someone was causing, he always hated firing them. He was a born troublemaker, after all, and it was hardly fair to hold things against them when he often behaved the same way himself. Still, there were times when he had very good reasons....

Mr. Phoenix arrived with a portfolio full of papers. Pegasus couldn't help but notice that it was slimmer than it had been the last time he had seen it.

"I worked on the drawings like you suggested," said Mr. Phoenix, in a tone that could only be described as unenthusiastic. The expression on his face told Pegasus what he would see before he even opened the folder. He accepted the papers and gave the sketches inside a cursory glance. They were a sad sight: a collection of stiff and unoriginal images, obviously put together with no love for the subject and a complete lack of inspiration. Even the lining and shading was nowhere near what it usually was. Looking at it filled Pegasus with regret as he remembered the vibrant pictures that had impressed him so much when he'd first hired Mr. Phoenix.

"I don't think you need me to tell you what I think about this," he said. He sat back in his chair and regarded Mr. Phoenix seriously. "You know, you've been working for Industrial Illusions for a long time - over ten years, in fact. I'm getting the feeling you might be just a wee bit burnt out at this job. Perhaps it's time for you to spread your wings - blaze new trails, seek new horizons, all that sort of thing. Look on it as an adventure!"

Mr. Phoenix's expression was flat with disbelief. "You're firing me."

"You've got it!" said Pegasus, smiling brightly. "Let's face it, old chap - you're just not working out. You will be leaving with a nice severance package and a glowing letter of recommendation, but you are leaving."

"You can't do this!"

"Yes, I can. It's in your contract - your employer reserves the right to terminate your employment for any reason he deems sufficient. You read it, you signed it, you agreed to it."

"But I haven't done anything! I don't deserve this!" Mr. Phoenix protested. He looked to be within moments of throwing a tantrum."My designs were flawless! You're just looking for excuses to get rid of me." His usually calm expression had twisted into something sinister; his hair was bristling like the hackles of a wild beast. Pegasus eyed him calmly.

_I thought so._

"Don't make an issue out of this," said Pegasus. "I don't want trouble between us."

"Well, you're going to get it," Mr. Phoenix snarled. "I won't let you get away with this."

Pegasus stood up. His hair shifted a bit, allowing a clear view of the place where his eye used to be.

"Don't push me," he said. "I'm not as gentle as you think I am."

The two of them stared each other down for a long time - a minute or five or fifteen. Pegasus could feel sweat beginning to trickle down the back of his neck and hoped nothing was showing. He could feel something reaching for his mind, trying to crack his resolve. White-hot streaks of pain shot through his head and throbbed in the place his eye should have been, but he gritted his teeth and bore it - it hurt a good deal less than losing the eye in the first place had. He was not going to crack. The worst thing that could possibly happen to him had already happened, and he'd survived it - nothing was ever going to break him again.

All the same, he was immensely relieved when the pressure suddenly let up. Mr. Phoenix broke his gaze and turned his head, breathing heavily.

"You win this time," he said, "but don't think you've heard the last of me."

"Then I'll look forward to hearing from you," said Pegasus blithely. "Send a post card, won't you?"

Mr. Phoenix's only answer was a snarl. He stormed out of the room, leaving his portfolio behind. Pegasus collapsed back into his chair, feeling utterly drained. He plucked a handkerchief from his pocket to dab at his face and the back of his neck. Only once he'd collected himself somewhat did he ring for his assistants, but by that point they were already rushing to his rescue.

"Are you all right?" asked Gekkou, his gentle eyes worried.

"I'm... all right. Just a bit winded," Pegasus said. "That was worse than I thought it would be."

"He was trying to do something to you," Yakou said. "What was he doing?"

"Who knows?" said Pegasus. "It wasn't very nice, whatever it was. If I hadn't already fired him I'd write him up for it."

"You're not being serious," said Yakou. "That's not a good sign."

"No, it's not," said Pegasus, dropping his flippant manner. He looked in the direction that Mr. Phoenix had gone. "It wouldn't hurt for someone to keep on eye on him to make sure he actually leaves the building. In the state of mind he's in, I have no idea what he might try." He sighed. "I probably could have handled that better. I just don't have the strength for these kinds of confrontations anymore."

"I'll keep an eye on Mr. Phoenix," said Gekkou. "Yakou, take care of Pegasus."

"I don't need taking care of," said Pegasus. "I'm not an old man, you know! ...Though now that you mention it, I could use something to steady my nerves."

Yakou shook his head, looking torn between amusement and exasperation. "I'll see what's in the wine cabinet."

"Good lad," said Pegasus. "I knew I kept you around for something."

The twins dispersed on their own errands, leaving Pegasus alone in his room. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eye. His head still ached.

_I hope I did the right thing,_ he mused. He almost laughed. _Probably not. My track record for that sort of thing isn't very good. But I've done what I can. Now we'll just have to wait and see..._

**To Be Continued...**


	3. Hidden Thoughts

**Hidden Thoughts**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Mizuchi sat alone beside the lake, gazing out at the rippling water. She did not yet feel at home in this new place. It seemed like she ought to have been - she and her brother had moved from place to place a great deal when they were young, and even now that they were comfortably settled with a home of their own, Edo's work still required a lot of traveling. She was used to spending time in unfamiliar places. But she couldn't quite get used to this one. There were so many people wherever she went, and even when she was safely tucked away in her new room, she could feel their presence all around her.

She hadn't quite adjusted to the school uniform, either. Or the way the local boys stared at her as she was wearing it. Reclusive as she was, she had no previous experience with how to deal with romantic overtures. Fortunately, most of them seemed to sense there was something a little bit different about her, so they sighed and stared and kept their distance, and she smiled vaguely at them as she passed, and spoke to no one.

There was something else, too, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. The island had a sense of things just waiting to happen, something that loomed over her without revealing its nature. She'd never felt anything quite like it before, so now she sat by the water, her eyes fixed on its reflective surface but her vision somewhere far away. There was a power lurking in or beneath this island, and she wanted to pinpoint it as soon as she could...

"Hi," said a voice, breaking her concentration. "Is everything okay?"

Mizuchi raised her eyes to see a blonde girl standing a short distance away, watching her with a shy smile. She forced herself to smile in return.

"I was just thinking," she said. "There's nothing wrong."

"Oh, I see. I didn't mean to intrude," said the girl. "You're new here, right? My name is Asuka."

"Mizuchi," she replied. "Yes, I'm new here. I'm still getting used to it. There are so many people here..."

"You think? This isn't really such a big school," said Asuka.

"I was home-schooled," Mizuchi replied. "I'm not used to having so many people around. It's usually just my brother, Edo, and me."

"I see," said Asuka. "You must be very close."

"Yes," Mizuchi replied. "We... move around a lot, because of Edo's work, so it isn't often I get to stay in one place long enough to meet many people, much less befriend them..."

Asuka smiled. "Well, if you intend on graduating, you're going to stay here at least three years, so you might as well start making friends."

Mizuchi was taken aback. "I don't know..."

"Don't be shy. My friends are really nice," said Asuka. "No one will mind if you hang out with us until you've learned your way around."

"Well..." said Mizuchi hesitantly. She still wasn't certain, but her brother had impressed upon her the need to behave like an ordinary student. Besides, it might be a help if she could get to know a little about the people here. "All right. I think I will."

Asuka beamed. "I'll see who I can find, then."

Mizuchi watched, bemused, as Asuka took out her handheld computer and began typing some messages into it. It appeared that Mizuchi was about to find herself invited to a party of sorts, whether she liked it or not.

_It will be fine,_ she told herself. _No one here knows anything about you. As far as they know, you're perfectly ordinary. Play the part._

Asuka finished chatting on the phone.

"Some of the guys are down by the beach," she said. "We're taking pictures and things to send to a friend of ours in America, but I don't think anyone will mind if you tag along."

"I'll try not to be a bother," said Mizuchi. She smiled slightly. "I'll hold the camera for you so you can be in the picture. I'm good at that."

"You won't be a bother," Asuka promised her. "Not unless you keep me here while the guys are waiting! Come on, let's go!"

Mizuchi found herself being dragged, so she gave up and let Asuka lead her up the path. So much for peace and quiet! Still, she vaguely recalled that this girl was one of the ones who had been watching when she had arrived on the beach, so it was reasonable that these friends of hers would be the ones she was with earlier. Her brother had seemed interested in them. Perhaps it would do some good to get to know them. If nothing else, she would draw less attention if she attached herself to a group. Not that she knew how to attach herself to a group, but Asuka seemed willing to take care of that for her...

Her thoughts were still whirling as she reached the cliffs where several other students were hanging about. The boy she had seen talking to Edo earlier was holding a fishing pole and looking proud of himself. A large fish was lying on a flat stone nearby, and a dark-skinned boy with bulging muscles was scaling it with a pocketknife.

"Look at the fish I caught!" the boy with the red jacket boasted. "Think it'll be enough to make lunch for everybody?"

"I'm so hungry I could just about eat the whole thing, bones and all!" the muscular boy declared.

"You didn't even help catch it! You just stood there and watched!" a smaller boy protested. He hardly looked old enough to be in the school, despite the uniform he was wearing. "I was the one who helped him drag it in. I waded right out into the water, and I can't even swim!"

"That doesn't make you brave," opined a boy dressed in black. "It makes you stupid."

"I didn't do anything," said the oldest of the group, who was leaning against a nearby tree and strumming a ukulele. "What does that make me?"

The two girls seated on either side of him cuddled closer to him in a reassuring sort of way.

"You're still wonderful, Fubuki!" one of them assured him.

"That's right - we love you no matter what!" the other agreed.

The boy called Fubuki grinned. "Well, I do lend a certain ambiance to the scene, don't I?"

"In other words, you're lazy," another boy in a yellow jacket opined. He had a notebook propped on the ground in front of him, and was busy scribbling something in it.

"Hey, Misawa," said the boy in the red jacket. "If you want to lend something, how about your homework? I still can't figure out the answer to number six on Chronos's worksheet."

"You'll never understand it if you don't do it yourself," said Misawa primly.

"I tried to do it myself! I still don't understand it!"

Mizuchi looked at Asuka. "These are your friends?"

"They're a weird bunch," Asuka agreed, "but they grow on you after a while. They're not boring anyway."

"So I see," Mizuchi murmured.

"Hey, Asuka, who's your friend?" asked the boy in red. "Isn't she one of the new transfer students?"

"That's right. This is Mizuchi," said Asuka. "She's a little shy, so I thought we might let her hang out with us for a while, until she gets to know more people."

"She can hang out with us as long as she wants!" the muscular boy declared. "She's cute!"

"Kenzan!" said the boy with the glasses. "Don't say things like that in front of her."

"Why not? It's not like I was insulting her."

Mizuchi laughed. She couldn't help it - their playful bickering reminded her so much of the way Takuma and Edo teased each other in the mornings. Asuka smiled at her.

"See, I knew you'd like them," she said. "That's Juudai, and that's Shou, Kenzan, Misawa, Manjoume, my best friends Junko and Momoe, and that's my brother Fubuki. Don't fall in love with him," she added mock-seriously. "There's already a line a mile long."

"I will endeavor not to do so," said Mizuchi, trying to hide a smile. She didn't think she was in danger of losing her heart to the boy, though she could see what would make him appealing. He had the aura of someone who meant nothing but good to the world. Most of the people here did, to some degree or another.

_But not to you. You must not forget that._ But it was hard to keep that in mind when there was an eager crowd of people gathering around her, all very curious and not the least bit afraid of her. Not that they had any way of knowing, but still...

"Do you really know Edo Phoenix?" asked Shou, eyes wide.

"Of course I do. He's my step-brother," said Mizuchi. It was a polite bit of fiction her brother had invented years ago when they had first taken Edo into their care. It was generally understood that "Edo Phoenix" was a stage name and that the name on his legal documents had the same surname as his manager. Mizuchi still wasn't sure how her brother had managed to wrangle that, but it seemed to have worked. It was one of the things that had kept the world at large from connecting Edward Phoenix from California with Saiou Edo from Japan. "He joined our family when we were both small, so we've grown up quite close."

"So level with me," said Juudai. "Is he _really_ a pro duelist, or are these guys just having fun with me?"

"He's been playing professionally since he turned thirteen," said Mizuchi seriously. "He's very good. I could never win against him even when we were children. I don't play against other people often enough to know how good I am, but..."

"Well, that's going to have to change if you're going to stay in Duel Academia," said Misawa.

"You can duel us, if you want," offered Junko. "We're not the best, but..."

"Asuka's the best girl in the school," Momoe said. "She's better than most of the boys."

"Oh, really?" said Mizuchi. "If Asuka is the best of the female duelists, who is the best of the boys?"

"I am!" said several voices at once.

Mizuchi laughed. "Well, then, I suppose I'll have try each of you and decide for myself."

"All right! A duel party!" said Juudai cheerfully. "Hey, you want to stay for lunch, too? You can have some of this fish I caught."

"She's not getting my share!" said Manjoume.

"Be nice," Asuka warned him.

He subsided, looking guilty.

"She can have Shou's share," he said. "He's little. He doesn't eat much."

"Let's duel first and then eat," said Juudai. "We have to do _something_ while the food is cooking."

"Me first!" said Kenzan.

"What? But you were the one doing the cooking!" Shou protested.

Asuka laughed as the boys fell to arguing.

"I can see you're going to be popular here," she told Mizuchi.

"Maybe so," said Mizuchi with a small smile. "It will be different, anyway. I've never been popular before."

Even though she knew it was all based on a false pretense, she still couldn't help but enjoy it a little. To have, for once, people to joke with and play with and sit down to meals with... maybe this was her chance to find out what it was like to have friends.

* * *

Hayato Maeda truly loved his job. It was almost unimaginable, when a year ago he had barely had the motivation to get out of bed, much less go to class - why bother when he knew he was going to fail at nearly everything he tried anyway? Now he greeted each morning with enthusiasm, eager to begin his work.

Well, who wouldn't enjoy working for Industrial Illusions? Pegasus himself was a renowned eccentric, and that meant he ran his business in the way that made sense to him, not according to conventional business practice. Hayato's "office", to use the term loosely, was actually a large studio shared by several other artists. It was situated so that it had a fair view of the cityscape and caught the most sunlight possible during daylight hours. Inside the room were a variety of desks, tables, easels, chairs, stools, assorted pedestals and platforms, a few shadowboxes, several cabinets filled with a variety of art supplies, even a small reference library full of books of photographs of all manner of things - in short, everything an artist could want that could be reasonably provided was in there somewhere. The atmosphere was generally convivial. Most of Hayato's co-workers had proven friendly and helpful, always willing to offer assistance and advice to a younger artist, and he blossomed under their care. The quality of his work was improving by leaps and bounds, and even Pegasus himself had come by himself to compliment him on a particularly excellent new design.

Hayato paused in his sketching to stretch a bit and look over his designs. He was surprised to catch a glimpse of the clock and realize it was after four-thirty - it felt to him like he had just come back from lunch.

_Guess I'd better start putting my stuff away,_ he thought. It would have been nice if there had been time to finish up what he was doing, but his evening classes would start soon, and he didn't want to miss them, either. He was still a student, even if he _did_ have a job now. Not that he really minded finally having classes he excelled in, but it cut into his free time...

As he was gathering up his things, he became aware of a presence. He glanced up to see a tall, slender man with a great deal of seafoam-green hair walking around the room, occasionally stopping to talk to people. It appeared that one of the twins had decided to grace them with his presence. Hayato knew the Tenmas better than most of the people in his department, mainly because when he had first arrived in America and speaking only a poor approximation of English, the Japanese-born Tenmas had taken it in turns teach him the ropes until he knew enough to get by on his own. He hadn't seen very much of them since then, since they were usually off assisting Pegasus, but once in a while he passed them in the halls or bumped into them in the cafeteria, and they were always courteous to him.

_I wonder what's up?_ he mused, as he watched the man move around the room. It was hard to tell from a distance, but he guessed it was Gekkou. The older twin generally had a dreamy, languid air about him, while Yakou's movements were crisp and efficient. _They don't usually come out here unless something important was going on._

He shrugged - whatever it was, it probably didn't concern him - and went back to packing up his sketches and putting away his materials. However, he was surprised a moment later when Gekkou appeared at his side.

"Hayato, could I ask you a small favor?" he asked.

"Sure, Mr. Tenma," said Hayato agreeably. "What do you need?"

"Mr. Pegasus has had to let one of the artists in another department go, and unfortunately he didn't leave behind any useable work for the next booster series. I've been asking people if they'd be willing to put in some extra hours so we won't fall too far behind schedule. Could I ask you to help?"

"I wish I could... I still have class tonight, though..."

"I can arrange for you to be excused," said Gekkou. "And we're sending out for pizzas and drinks for everyone who's staying late, so you won't miss dinner."

"In that case, I'll stay," said Hayato.

"Wonderful. We're meeting in the studio on the eleventh floor - the lighting in there will be better at night than it is in here."

"All right! I'll meet you there in a few minutes," said Hayato. "I've just got to get my stuff together... whoops!" In trying to pay attention to Gekkou and gather up his pens at the same time, he'd managed to knock a few of them onto the floor.

"Take your time," said Gekkou, not quite hiding a smile. "There's no hurry. And thank you so much for agreeing to help."

"It's no problem," Hayato assured him, as she scrambled to collect his fallen pens. "I'll be there in a minute, okay?"

Gekkou nodded and moved on. By the time Hayato was done gathering his art supplies, the other man had already left. Well, he'd said there was no hurry. Hayato carefully tucked his sketches into his portfolio and carried all his paints back to the cabinet. By the time he was done, the rest of his co-workers had already packed up and gone home, or else gone upstairs to find Gekkou. The room looked a bit desolate, empty as it was, with the setting sun casting orange lights and long shadows across the floor. He found himself eager to get to the other studio where there would be more people and light. Hurriedly, Hayato exited the room and locked the door behind him as though he suspected something might get out.

_Don't be such a coward,_ he told himself. _Getting scared of a room just because there aren't any people in it. Didn't you learn anything from Juudai?_

All the same, there was something in the air that made him edgy, and he found himself glancing around him uneasily as he walked up the hall toward the elevator.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the noise. He looked wildly in all directions, but there was no one there. Still, he had definitely heard a sound - not a human noise or a machine noise, but an animal noise, a gentle chittering, purring sound. He would have found it soothing if he hadn't already been so keyed up. Now he tried to focus on it and realized he wasn't hearing the sound in his ears, but somewhere in his mind. He relaxed a little and let his gaze unfocus slightly, and wasn't terribly surprised when this time he found himself looking at a semitransparent shape hovering a short distance away. He gave a sigh of relief.

"Oh, it's just you," he said to the Des Koala. "You startled me. How's it going? It's been a while."

"Murr," said the Des Koala. He generally wasn't much for conversation. In fact, he generally wasn't there at all unless something important was going on. Usually all Hayato ever saw of him was a quick glimpse out of the corner of his eye.

"So what's up?" Hayato asked. "Or are you just visiting?"

"Murr," he said again. He turned and pointed down a hallway, looking at Hayato and then at some point in the distance.

"Huh? But the studio isn't that way," Hayato told him. The koala continued pointing. He tapped his foot impatiently.

"Oh, all right," said Hayato. "But only for you."

Worrying that he would be late, he nevertheless followed his koala down the empty hall. He hadn't spent much time in this part of the building, but he vaguely recalled that it housed the private studios used by some of the senior artists. It felt like trespassing, but Des Koala made encouraging noises at him whenever he began to slow down, so he pushed onward. He found himself trying to think of excuses for being there even though there was really no reason why he couldn't go that way if he wanted to. It wasn't as though this part of the building was restricted - indeed, he'd seen his co-workers come here to borrow supplies before. He couldn't imagine what a koala would want there, though.

Even as he was thinking that, Des Koala stopped and held a claw to his lips, and then pointed towards a door that stood slightly ajar. Hayato nodded to show he understood and began tiptoeing towards it as slowly and silently as he could. Someone inside the room was talking to himself.

"How dare he! After ten years of loyal service... And there isn't even a reason for it! Just because he didn't like what I was painting..."

_This must be the guy who got fired,_ Hayato thought. He felt a bit sorry for him, whoever he was. However, his sympathy vanished quickly as the speaker continued.

"Why is Pegasus even still in charge of this place? He's half-blind and more than half crazy. He doesn't even _do_ anything. If he's not holed up in his office with his yes-men, he's gallivanting across the world on one of his pointless research projects, if he's actually researching anything and not off getting drunk somewhere...."

Hayato felt himself getting annoyed. He hadn't been working for Industrial Illusions for very long, but he had worked there long enough to know that this was hardly an accurate portrayal of anything. For one thing, Pegasus himself was still actively engaged in making cards, if not as many as he had when the game had been just getting started. He was deeply involved with everything his company did - he seemed to know the names and faces of every one of his employees, and was always popping up in unexpected places to see what was going on, and to demand a full accounting if things weren't happening on schedule. A person was more likely to wonder if the man ever slept than accuse him of not doing anything useful.

"It's discrimination, that's what it is. Hiring packs of teenagers who barely know how to hold a pencil, all in the name of 'getting fresh ideas', and clearing out the ones who know what we're doing as if we're so much deadwood. He's going to run the company into the ground at this rate. Someone should take the whole thing over, for his own good...."

Hayato frowned. All this _sounded_ like the ranting of a disgruntled ex-employee, but he was in such deadly earnest that it made him uneasy. It was bound to be nothing, just someone's fit of temper, but all the same...

All the same, he didn't think it was his imagination when the voice of the man he was eavesdropping on suddenly shifted to a different pitch, a nasty hissing that reminded him of something burning.

"Yes, that's right, someone needs to make him pay for this. With him out of the way, Industrial Illusions can start living up to its full potential. We'll just have to have another word with him in private when he hasn't got his little helpers watching him..."

That was all Hayato wanted to hear. He turned and hurried back up the hallway as quickly as he could, hoping the sound of his footsteps wouldn't draw any attention, and he didn't stop running until he was safely ensconced in the elevator.

"Whew!" he said, wiping his forehead. He fixed a glare on Des Koala. "What was that all about?"

"Murr," said Des Koala unhelpfully.

"Yeah, I know it's probably important, but what am I supposed to do about it? I'm not James Bond, you know."

"Murr!"

"Well, it's nice to know you have faith in me," said Hayato. He sighed. "I guess I could tell someone."

The koala made a small sound of approval and faded out of sight. Hayato sighed and wondered how he'd ended up with a spirit partner with a heroic mindset. It was bound to be some sort of accident in the cosmic scheme of things.

He descended to the eleventh floor and set out in search of the studio. He was relieved that he could hear voices - not angry ones, thankfully, but the sounds of people in a good mood getting something accomplished. He could dimly hear a rhythmic noise that resolved itself, as he drew closer, into the sound of upbeat music. Feeling relieved, he let himself into the room. It was bright as day inside, thanks to a large number of strategically placed lights. A number of people were milling around getting their work stations set up the way they liked them. Someone ha placed a portable stereo on a stool in one corner of the room, where it blared out peppy pop music. Hayato recognized a couple of the artists from his own department, and he guessed that the rest of them were from the more senior art crews. He also spotted the twins supervising the operation - Yakou was occupied going over some papers, presumably the designs they were planning on working on that night, and Gekkou was on the phone with the pizza people. What really surprised him was that Pegasus himself was sitting in one corner, setting up an easel and laying out paints. It made Hayato wonder if there was really that great a shortage that Pegasus himself felt the need to help, or whether he was just feeling artistic that evening.

It was funny how resolving to tell someone and actually telling them could be such drastically different things. He had seen enough weirdness in his final year at Duel Academia to know the difference between garden-variety strangeness and something that was genuinely worth worrying about, and he was quite sure that there was something more to what he'd overheard than just someone venting over being fired. Des Koala wouldn't have dragged him over there to listen to it if it hadn't been important - he would have believed that even if he hadn't heard the other man speaking in that unnatural tone of voice. On the other hand, he wasn't sure how to make anyone else in this bright cheerful room believe that he was anything other than paranoid. He decided to try anyway. The trouble with having a duel spirit annoyed at you was that there was nowhere you could go to get away with it, and he knew Des Koala wouldn't let him back out of this. He screwed up his courage and walked over to his boss.

"Hello, Mr. Pegasus," he greeted.

Pegasus looked up, and his expression brightened. "Oh, Hayato-boy! So good of you to join us. I was hoping you would."

"Er, yeah, thanks," said Hayato. "Um, listen, that guy who got fired - did he work on my floor?"

Pegasus looked puzzled by this question, but he answered only, "Why, yes, I believe he did. Why do you ask?"

"Well, um, because..." Hayato racked his brains for more subtle questions he could ask without sounding insane, and couldn't think of any. So he asked a crazy question: "Mr. Pegasus, have you ever heard of someone who could talk to a card?"

"Everyone can talk to cards. It's more of a question of them being able to talk back, really," said Pegasus. "Why? Do you know someone whose cards can talk?"

"Not all of them. Just this one," said Hayato, taking out his Des Koala. "And not all the time. But sometimes he tells me things he thinks are important, and just now he led me to this guy's office."

"He's not supposed to be in his office," said Pegasus. "He was escorted out of the building some time ago."

"Oh. Well, maybe it wasn't the same guy, but I know I heard someone in there ranting about how unfair it was that he got fired. He sounded really upset." Lowering his voice, Hayato added, "He was talking like he planned on doing something to you, or the company, or both. He said the company wasn't living up to its potential and it needed someone who could run it better than you. I'm not making this up - I really heard it!"

"I believe you," said Pegasus seriously. "Yakou! Come here a moment."

Yakou was at his side in an instant. "Yes, sir?"

"It seems Mr. Phoenix has found a way to slip back into the building. Check his office and see if anything has been tampered with or removed. On second thought, contact security and have them do a thorough check of the areas he has access to, just in case. And tell them what I think of them for letting him back in when he's not supposed to be working here any longer!"

"Yes sir. I'll get right on it," said Yakou, and slipped away again.

"You really are taking this seriously," said Hayato. "If I were you, I would think I was crazy."

"I'm a little crazy, too, in case you haven't noticed," said Pegasus flippantly. More seriously, he added, "I trust you, Hayato-boy, and I trust your Duel Spirit, too."

"Thanks," said Hayato, touched. "Um... Something else. When I was listening to him talking, something about him sounded... weird. Like... not natural."

Pegasus looked grim. "I know. He's not. That's why I fired him." He patted Hayato on the shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry. I have a pretty good idea what his problem is, and we're keeping an eye on him. You're a good fellow for looking out for me, and I appreciate it, but there's no need to worry. But let me know if your fine furry friend has anything else to say, all right? Even if it doesn't seem important."

"Will do," Hayato promised.

"Good lad," said Pegasus. "Now, hurry along and get to work, or I'll tell Gekkou not to give you any pizza."

Hayato laughed a little. Things must be okay if Pegasus was making jokes about pizza. Feeling a bit more at ease, he hurried off to set up his easel. He may have already done his good deed for the day, but that didn't mean he was going to get out of working tonight.

"Never a dull moment, huh?" he said.

"Murr," his koala agreed.

* * *

Saiou had made himself comfortable. His room in Obelisk Blue, though not really to his taste, were still quite comfortable, and the school had been obliging enough about giving him the few things he felt it lacked, or placing orders for them if they weren't immediately available. Within an hour of his arrival, he had a nice workstation set up so that he could continue managing Edo's career within the comfort of his room. This was good, as he had made it clear that he was not here to be a student, but to act as guardian over his sister and Edo. Since he was well over the age of most students admitted to the school, he had been permitted to do so. Saiou suspected that they would have given to any demand he'd made, just to get Edo into their school. It was easy to tell that the current acting principal would have jumped through any hoops to make himself look good, if only by proxy. That suited Saiou. He had always been a master manipulator, so it was nice to be in a place run by someone who was willing to be manipulated.

He quietly going over some paperwork to assure that Edo's career would not suffer while he was in school, when he heard a knock on the door.

"You don't need to knock," he said.

"Just making sure," said Edo, as he let himself in.

"So, how was school?" asked Saiou, looking up from his papers.

Edo walked as far as Saiou's bed and sprawled across it. "Exhausting. Everyone knows my name, and everyone seems to want my autograph, or a handshake, or a lecture on the finer points of dueling." He folded his arms behind his head to make a pillow. "Though the classes were more interesting than I thought they would be. I thought they'd be too easy for me."

"Perhaps they will do you some good, then. It never helps to get complacent."

"I didn't say I learned anything," said Edo. "But at least they're starting with something more than 'this is a card'. If I stayed here a whole three years, I might actually learn a thing or two."

Saiou raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying you wish to stay?"

"_Definitely_ not. It's just not as bad as I thought it would be," Edo replied. "No luck on finding that one you were looking for, though. It's not as though fools are in short supply."

"There's a difference between a fool and The Fool," said Saiou, "but be that as it may, you've already found him. Or more to the point, he found you."

Edo blinked. "You mean that one on the docks? The one who challenged me to a duel? Well, he was definitely more foolish than most people, I'll grant you."

"Perhaps so," said Saiou thoughtfully. He was quiet for a moment, gazing out the window as he thought. "My cards have never been wrong, but I have been known to misread them. Perhaps it would be best to test him."

It was Edo's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Did you have something in particular in mind?"

"You did agree to duel him. See if his talent is more than in just his mind."

"Not likely," said Edo. "You heard him talk. You saw him. Besides, he was wearing a red jacket. Didn't they say it's only the really hopeless ones who get put in red?"

"Perhaps so," said Saiou. "But I would not expect to find the Fool we are looking for among the elite. The Fool of the Tarot is not a fool because he is inherently foolish, but because he has potential that he has not yet realized. To do the best you can though you have no skill to work with is admirable; to have skill and not use it is truly foolish."

"Huh. I see what you mean. So basically you think this guy could be great but he's just slacking off, is that it?"

"That, or he has yet to find the correct channel for his energies. Either way..." He reached for his cards, always close at hand, and plucked one at random: The Magician. "Either way, someone must spur the Fool to action. If you do not care to duel him, then perhaps I will catch him alone and see what I can find hidden in the dark corners of his mind."

"Do that," said Edo approvingly. "And if you find anything interesting, let me know. Otherwise I'm just going to say I don't have time. There's no point in dueling people who aren't good enough to give me a challenge."

Saiou laughed a little. "Why not say there's no point in dueling? Last I checked, there were very few who could give you anything like a real challenge."

"Well, I can't argue with that," said Edo, flashing Saiou a grin. "But some of them are more fun to beat than others."

"Very well, then. I will speak to him myself, and see what I can learn from him."

"And I... probably ought to be doing something besides napping in your bed. I'm supposed to have homework to do."

"No one is going to give _you_ a hard time over a little thing like that," said Saiou.

"True, but I'm supposed to be keeping up appearances." He got up. "Thanks for the talk. See you at dinner, I guess."

"I will attempt not to be late," Saiou assured him.

Edo waved a casual goodbye and slipped out of the room. Saiou turned his attention back to his paperwork, but only for a moment. As soon as he had written a final signature, he gathered everything up neatly, and he went out.

He had to admit, the island was a far more pleasant place than he would have guessed it would be. He had imagined something institutional, something as no-nonsense as the man who had founded it. To come here and find a veritable tropical paradise, complete with palm trees and crystal oceans, was an unexpected pleasure. Perhaps Edo was right to think that coming here would not be as much of a punishment as it had first seemed.

_If only we were really here for his education,_ Saiou thought. He shook his head. It didn't matter how nice the scenery was here, if coming to this place led to him losing what he valued most.

Still, he had said he would find the peculiar boy and talk to him, and see if his instincts were leading him in the right direction. It was easier to agree with Edo and believe that the boy had all the potential of a tree stump, but Saiou had felt an aura about him that was slightly different from anything he had encountered before, something he couldn't quite place, and it intrigued him. He wanted to find out more about him, if only to satisfy his curiosity.

Evening was falling over the island, and the sky held a dazzling sunset, vividly pink and orange and violet. Saiou walked slowly, savoring it, as he made his way to the little shack where the school's most looked-down-upon students dwelled. It rested close to the sea, not far from a steep rocky precipice. The view there was better even than what Saiou had enjoyed from his room in the Obelisk Blue building, but he wasn't thinking about that as he gazed out at the ocean.

_The edge of a cliff. How appropriate,_ he mused. Surely it was just a coincidence, something that had arisen from the twin facts of the number of cliffs available on Academy Island, and the fact that the establishment wanted to keep the underachievers out of the way, but it was still interesting. Most of the classic images of the Fool showed him frolicking at the edge of a cliff. Granted, it was a metaphorical cliff, symbolizing the danger that innocence was likely to lead to, but all the same, it was an interesting place to find someone he suspected of being a Fool.

For a few minutes, Saiou merely lurked outside the building, listening to the sounds inside, feeling the various presences that moved there. They seemed surprisingly content, despite the humble setting they lived in. Curious, he laid a hand on the wood of the old building, trying to get a better sense. Buildings did not have minds that could be read, but they had a different kind of aura, a spiritual energy absorbed from the people who lived inside them. This building had an old, leaden sense of gloom lying deep within its core, the aura of a building that had long been inhabited by people who had all but given up. The surface feelings, though, were more optimistic. There was even a faint sense of pride, as if somehow these downtrodden students had found some reason to be _happy_ they were here in this splintery old shack.

_Something has given them hope,_ Saiou decided. _No, not something. Someone. Interesting._

Now more than ever, he was certain he was in the right place. All that remained was to find the boy and talk to him a bit, to see if he could get a feel for what his talents actually were. After all, where would the Fool be if there were no Magician to open his pack for him and show him his gifts? Saiou walked around the building until he found the room where the odd boy lived. That much was easy; the room pulsed with joy and optimism like a heartbeat that circulated warmth through the entire building. There was more than one strong soul in there, but only one that interested Saiou. He flicked a hint of suggestion in the boy's direction and waited for a response.

"Whoo-whee!" said the boy's voice from inside. "All this homework is about to fry my brain. I need to get some fresh air."

There was the sound of a chair scraping against a wood floor. Someone said, "Where are you going? Want some company?"

"Nah. I'm just going to walk a couple of laps around the building. I'll be back soon."

Saiou smiled slightly, leaned against a shadowed wall, and waited.

A few moments later, there came the sound of footfalls, the casual tread of one who fears nothing. He surely wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, for he came almost within touching distance without noticing Saiou was there.

"Good evening," said Saiou. "Enjoying the sunset, I suppose?"

Juudai stopped walking. "Oh, hey, I didn't see you there! What's up?"

"Just out for a stroll," said Saiou. "You have a lovely view from here, and I just stopped to admire it."

"Oh," said Juudai. If it occurred to him that they were on the side of the building that faced away from the ocean and the sunset, he didn't mention it. "So, uh... Hey, you're one of those new transfer students, right?"

"Not precisely. I'm here in my capacity as Edo's manager, to make sure his career doesn't suffer while he's getting his education."

"Oh," said Juudai again. "I guess that makes sense. Being a pro duelist must be a lot of work... I guess that goes for managers, too."

"It is indeed a lot of work," Saiou agreed. "One of my jobs is to keep track of who he has arranged to duel... I noticed you were eager to play against him, earlier. Just how good are you, I wonder?"

"Good enough, I hope!" said Juudai, grinning a bit bashfully. "I'm one of the best in my class, anyway!"

"I see. Hmm..."

Saiou stepped forward a little, as though wishing to take a better look at him - which in a sense was true. He met Juudai's gaze, and his eyes began to glow softly. A slackness came over Juudai's features, and Saiou smiled.

_Now let's see what's inside your mind._

The surface thoughts came first: duels, homework, friends... it was easy to see that this was a boy who loved all his friends with a deep and uncomplicated love that was rare to see in someone his age. Saiou was surprised; it was rare for him to touch the mind of someone so completely without hatred or vice, and for a moment he almost quailed away from it.

_No. He must have secrets hiding in there somewhere..._

He moved past the surface, peering deep into the places where Juudai himself rarely looked. There were shadows there - patches of loneliness and uncertainty, but those were tentative and hazy, easily overlooked in the face of his glowing present. There had to be something else. No ordinary human could be so completely good. It just wasn't _natural_. He was hiding something, and Saiou was determined to find it. He pushed past those old memories, down to the very essence, to the border where mind and soul met...

He found blackness. It was like no darkness he had ever seen before: thick, velvet darkness that enveloped his thoughts, drawing him in deeper and deeper into its depths. It held immense power, the likes of which he had never seen. It was still and quiet, almost restful. It was just waiting to be released.

Saiou backed away so suddenly that he bumped into the wall of the building, and he braced himself against it, panting heavily. Juudai, coming out of his trance, looked concerned.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm all right," said Saiou, somehow managing to keep his voice steady. "A moment of lightheadedness, that's all. If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go back to my room."

He didn't wait around to see what Juudai had to say about this, or if he reacted to it at all. All Saiou wanted was to get very far away. He disappeared into the woods, allowing himself to get lost among the soothing sameness of a thousand trees. He had no fear of getting lost, even in the dark and unfamiliar territory - he could always follow the sound of human thoughts back to where he had come from. Right now, he needed solitude so he could think.

_That... that was not a Fool. I don't know what that was. I've never seen anything like it..._

He didn't think he trusted it, either. Juudai's surface thoughts might have been pure, but that darkness was something else again. It existed somewhere beyond good and evil, somewhere in the realms of raw elemental power. He had never before found something in someone's mind that he could not manipulate to suit his own purposes, and seeing it now left him shaking.

_He can't be the one we're looking for. I won't believe it! I refuse to trust Edo's life to someone like him!_

Once again, the temptation presented itself to just forget the whole thing. What possible harm could it do? Edo didn't _need_ his father anymore. He also didn't really believe that there was anyone on this island who was going to help his cause. It would be easy enough to persuade him the whole thing was a mistake. Maybe it _was_ a mistake. Maybe he had mistaken this persons's hidden power for the power he was truly seeking and he wouldn't have to get involved with him. Or maybe he wasn't meant to be an ally at all, but rather, someone who had to be dealt with before they could move on to whatever they needed to do next...

_Even if he isn't, he could be,_ a voice in the back of his mind suggested.

He tried his best to ignore that idea, but it was undeniably enticing. If he planted the idea that this was meant to be a stepping-stone and not a comrade, then Edo would be glad enough to deal with him, with or without Saiou's help. If he was defeated and rendered powerless, he would not be able to do whatever it was he was supposed to do to deal with Edo's father, and that would be the end of it. Edo might be disappointed, but he wouldn't blame Saiou. It wouldn't be hard to arrange that...

_I wouldn't just be doing it for myself,_ Saiou told himself. _I'd be doing it to protect Edo from that..._

Darkness.

Light.

Of course.

The thing in Edo's father's mind had been a being of pure light. Whatever was lurking in this Juudai boy's mind was pure darkness. Of course they were meant to clash with each other someday, somehow. Saiou, of all people, knew destiny when it stared him in the face.

_So one will destroy the other, is that it? I suppose it comes down to whether I cast my lot with the light or the dark..._

Not a pretty picture either way, he decided. He didn't trust either of them... but only one of them would let him keep what was most precious to him.

_I will not give him up,_ he thought fiercely, _and I will stop anyone who tries to take him from me._

**To Be Continued...**


	4. Battles

**Battles**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Mizuchi was doing homework. This was still a novel thing for her - she'd never really had any before, and so far she was still finding it mildly interesting rather than annoying. She wasn't a competitive duelist, so having to think about it all so hard for such long periods of time was taking a lot of her concentration. She paused for a moment to stretch, and her eyes fell naturally on her bedroom mirror. Mizuchi had always felt most comfortable when there were a few mirrors around, and could spend hours gazing into one, letting it show her its visions. Given her preference, she would have filled her room with them, but since she was supposed to be avoiding seeming eccentric, she had limited herself to a small one on her bedside table, one over her vanity, two in the bath, and a pocket compact that she could carry with her at all times. Even though any reflective surface she passed would obey her command, a proper mirror was still the best, and she felt unprotected if there wasn't at least one near her at all times.

It was handy for contacting her brother, too.

_Mizuchi, are you busy?_

Mizuchi heard the call and took her mirror out of her pocket. Instead of seeing her own visage reflected in it, she saw Takuma looking back at her with worried eyes.

"I'm doing my homework, but it can wait," she assured him. "What is it?"

"You have been spending time among the students here, haven't you? Do you know a boy named Yuuki Juudai?"

Mizuchi nodded, knowing that he could see her from his own mirror. "He's a friend of one of the girls who's taken me under her wing."

"I want you to find out more about him. I tried to probe his mind last night, and met something I did not understand. It gives me a bad feeling, and I would like your opinion on it."

"I'll check his reflection, then," said Mizuchi. "It shouldn't be hard."

"I was hoping you would," her brother replied. "Let me know as soon as you can."

Anything else he might have said was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Mizuchi, are you in there?" called Junko's voice. "A bunch of us are going to Tome's for egg bread! Want to come?"

"Go with them," Takuma encouraged her. His image faded.

"I'll be right there!" Mizuchi called. She quickly stowed her mirror in her pocket and hurried to the door.

"What took you so long?" asked Junko cheerfully.

"Just wanted to finish one last question," said Mizuchi, "before I forgot the answer."

Junko laughed. "You're so dutiful! I should work as hard as you do."

Chattering merrily, she led the way to the main entryway of the dorm, where Momoe, Asuka, and Fubuki were already waiting.

"Is anyone else coming?" Mizuchi asked.

"Manjoume found out we were going from _someone_," said Asuka, shooting a look at her brother, who grinned innocently. "And I think Juudai is coming, so you can bet Shou and Kenzan will follow him."

"He's very popular, isn't he?" Mizuchi murmured. An offhand remark, but if it happened to lead to any interesting revelations...

"He's a school hero," Asuka explained. "He was the one who beat Kagemaru and the three Sacred Beast cards and more or less stopped the world as we know it from coming to an end. A lot of people really admire him. He _is_ a great duelist."

"He's cute, too," Momoe opined.

"He's okay. Fubuki's cuter," said Junko.

"Yeah, but Asuka's not likely to date her brother!"

"I'm not likely to date Juudai, either, so let it drop," said Asuka. "Even if I were interested - which I am not - Juudai wouldn't know romance if it walked up and introduced itself."

"Oh, well," said Fubuki, feigning disappointment. "There's always Manjoume."

"That's enough out of you!" said Asuka, giving her brother a sisterly slap.

Mizuchi couldn't help but smile. "Fubuki, don't let your sister treat you like that! Why, if I treated my brother that way, he'd hang me out the window."

"Would he really?" asked Momoe.

"No. He doesn't look it, but he's really the gentlest person alive - unless you hurt someone he cares about, in which case he'll come after you with a vengeance."

"You should invite him to come hang out with us next time," said Junko. "He's cute, too."

Mizuchi laughed. "I'll tell him you said that. He won't know what to make of it. But he's very busy with his work, so he may not come even if I invite him."

While they chatted, they made their way up the path to Tome's shop, where they found Juudai and his companions already there waiting for them. Actually, it was debatable whether they were really waiting, or if they had forgotten all about them in their eagerness to examine the bread. Only Manjoume was hanging around boredly near the front door, keeping an eye on the path. Juudai, Shou, and Kenzan were huddled around the bread cart arguing over which packet they should choose.

"If I can't get the one with the golden egg in it," said Shou, "then I want one with nuts in it!"

"I want one with fish in it! Or chicken. I'm not particular," said Kenzan.

Juudai laughed. "Hey, you have a good nose - can't you just sniff out the good ones?"

"Not through the wrappers, I can't!"

"Shut up," said Manjoume. "They're here! ... Asuka, hi!" His haughty expression immediately changed to one of doting.

"Don't act surprised to see me," she told him. "I was the one who came up with the idea in the first place."

"And it was such a good idea, too!" he told her. He made a slight bow and a gesture towards the tray of bread, looking in his black outfit very much like some manner of waiter in a particularly odd restaurant. "Please, allow me to pay for yours."

"Well..." said Asuka, looking doubtful. Then she shrugged. "If it makes you happy, I guess I don't mind!"

"Well, if he's paying for hers, I'll pay for you two lovely ladies," said Fubuki to Junko and Momoe, putting an arm around each of them. The two girls sighed with bliss.

"Hey," said Juudai, "if Manjoume's buying for Asuka, and Fubuki's buying for Momoe and Junko, who's buying for Mizuchi?"

"That's really not necessary," said Mizuchi. "I can pay for my own, really."

"It wouldn't be nice for you to get left out, though," said Juudai.

"I'll do it!" said Kenzan.

"No, me!" said Shou.

Asuka laughed. "You've got yourself a following, Mizuchi."

"Well, I'd hate to insult anyone..." she said. She was not, after all, immune to flattery. She favored the two boys with a smile. "All right, then. If you split the cost between you, I won't feel too guilty."

Shou and Kenzan looked very pleased by this news. Juudai just laughed at all the confusion and began picking through the loaves. Everyone else gathered around to do the same - it was a matter of pride that someone from their group had to find the golden egg.

"Mizuchi, you have good luck," said Asuka, half-jokingly. "Which one should I pick?"

"Hmm..." Mizuchi looked seriously at the selection of breads, and stirred them around with one hand to reveal the ones further down in the pile. She tapped one decisively. "This one."

"All right," said Asuka, sounding amused. "If you're sure."

They paid for their snacks (or had them paid for by someone else), and went to find someplace where they could enjoy them in comfort. Mizuchi, remembering her brother's request, asked if they could go sit by the lake.

"You really like it there, don't you?" asked Junko.

Mizuchi nodded. "It's peaceful there. I lived in the city, so there weren't a lot of lakes nearby. We have a fish pond at home, but it's not the same."

"You had a fish pond? In the middle of the city? You must be rich," said Junko.

Mizuchi looked sheepish, as though she had said something she shouldn't. "We get by."

"Hey, don't be embarrassed or anything," said Fubuki cheerfully. "Manjoume's filthy rich and he's still just one of the guys, right?" To prove his point, he looped an arm around Manjoume's neck and began ruffling his hair. The others laughed as Manjoume yelped and struggled. Fubuki finally released him, still chuckling as Manjoume attempted to put himself back in order.

They reached the lake and settled down to eat their bread, chatting idly. Mizuchi made herself comfortable on the bank of the lake, watching the ripples in the water as usual. She had picked a good place - there was little wind today, and the water was almost perfectly still and made an excellent mirror. She carefully began to peel open her bread packet and surreptitiously tore off a bit of bread to hide in the palm of her hand. She crumbled it and scattered it across the surface of the water. Within a few moments, a small collection of minnows were flitting around, gobbling up the crumbs.

"Oh, look," she said, loud enough to attract attention. "Fish!"

She may not have spent much time in society, but she did know that a quick way to get a boy's attention was to announce the presence of something that swam, crawled, slithered, or was capable of playing fetch. Immediately, she found herself surrounded by various persons looking into the water at the swimming things, as though fish in a pond were something unusual. Mizuchi smiled a bit smugly as they all leaned over the water. She was no longer concerned with the fish. She was looking at the reflections of the people standing next to them.

Mirrors had a long history of being considered magical. Among the properties attributed to them was their ability to show the truth: no matter how effectively a person tried to disguise themselves, it was claimed, a mirror would always show them as they truly were. This was obviously not true for everyone, but it was true for Mizuchi. For her to see someone's reflection in a mirror - or a shop window, or even a puddle - was enough to give her a glimpse at their true nature. It amused her slightly to think that what she was seeing was so different from what everyone else was seeing. In her eyes, Shou looked taller and sterner, Manjoume gentler and less secure. Fubuki looked more or less the way he always did, but there was a dark shadow lurking behind him that intrigued her. It hadn't quite caught up to him yet, but it would. But these weren't the ones she needed to look at, so she let her gaze fall on Juudai's reflection.

At first, she thought that this must be one time when her brother was mistaken. Juudai's image looked perfectly normal to her, exactly as he did in ordinary life. Then she realized suddenly that his eyes were the wrong color. Instead of being warm brown, they were golden, with odd diamond-shaped pupils and flecks of yellow light glowing in their depths. Fascinated, she looked more closely. As she focused her attention on him, the others seemed to fade away, until there was nothing left in the world but darkness and those glowing eyes...

The vision was abruptly broken as Kenzan shoved his hand into the water.

"Got one!" he exclaimed proudly, and sure enough, he did. A small fish was wiggling in his hand. Kenzan beamed.

"What are you gonna do with it now?" asked Juudai.

"I dunno," said Kenzan. "Eat it?"

"You can't eat it raw," said Manjoume in obvious distaste.

"Why not? That's what sushi is, right?" asked Kenzan.

"Sushi's usually not still alive," Shou pointed out.

Kenzan grinned. "That's not hard to fix..."

"I think I just lost my appetite," said Asuka, standing up and brushing crumbs off her skirt. "You boys have fun with your fish. I'm going back to my room."

"I'm not fishing!" said Manjoume, scrambling after her.

"Neither am I," said Mizuchi. She started to say she was planning to go finish her homework, realized that would take her the same direction that Asuka was going and that Manjoume was likely going to go that way, and decided to show the poor boy some mercy. Mizuchi wasn't all that familiar with courtship rituals, but she had realized within five minutes of meeting Manjoume that he was hopelessly smitten with Asuka. Mizuchi didn't feel inclined to make his life any more difficult by competing with him for Asuka's attention. "I think I'm going to the library."

Suiting action to words, she set out at a dignified walk in the direction of the main school building - but as soon as she was out of sight, she turned off of the path and out of sight. She took out her compact mirror.

"Takuma? Are you busy?" she asked.

There was a moment before his image appeared. "Not that busy. Did you learn anything?"

"I couldn't look very closely. It was just as you said - there's something about him that's not like anything I've ever seen before." Mizuchi took a moment, trying to arrange her impressions into a sensible fashion. She was not usually an emotional girl, but the strangeness had rattled her, and her brother needed her to think clearly. "When I gazed at his reflection, he seemed perfectly ordinary, except that his eyes were... something not human. When I tried to look at them more closely, everything seemed to be blotted out by darkness."

"Yes. Something similar happened to me," said her brother. He looked thoughtful, but not, Mizuchi thought, particularly concerned. "Yes, this confirms my suspicions. You should continue to keep a close watch on him, but I am going to be working on the problem myself."

"You think he is dangerous?"

"Don't you?"

Mizuchi considered. Her interactions with him thus far had given her an impression of a cheerful, lighthearted boy who lived primarily to spend time with his friends and have fun. And yet, if the reflection in the water was his true nature... Well, she'd known all along that normal humans could turn nasty the instant they encountered anything they didn't like or understand. She couldn't fall into the trap of believing these people were her friends...

"Of course," she said. "I'll do as you say."

"Good. I knew I could count on you," said Takuma. "I'm going to talk to Edo later. Hopefully we can wrap this up with a minimum of difficulty."

"I hope so," said Mizuchi. "What are you planning on doing?"

"Very little. He's already challenged Edo to a duel, and Edo is going to take him up on the offer. That's all it should take," Saiou replied.

"I see," said Mizuchi, but she didn't.

_He's keeping something from me,_ she thought, as she said her goodbyes and closed the mirror. _Why would he do that? He's never done anything like that before..._

She stood for a while, thinking. Then she turned and walked up the path to the library, on the off-chance that someone might come looking for her or ask if she had been there. She checked out a book, completely at random, and turned and began walking back to her dorm. On the way there, she passed by the lake, and was somewhat surprised to find that Juudai and his two best friends were still there. They didn't seem to be fishing anymore, though. They had found a ball somewhere are were tossing it back and forth to each other, occasionally losing it and running madly to catch it before it could roll into the lake.

"Hey, Mizuchi, you missed it!" said Juudai. "Kenzan actually ate the fish!"

"I'm... sure that was a sight to see," Mizuchi said.

"Well, maybe next time!" Juudai said.

Mizuchi wasn't sure what she was supposed to say to that, so she murmured something like, "All right," and wandered off toward her dorm. She cast one backwards glance at the boys; someone had dropped the ball, and Juudai was wading around in the water trying to catch it. Everyone was having a good laugh.

_He seems so ordinary,_ she thought. Even after the vision she'd had, it was still hard to imagine him actually doing anything bad.

_Takuma knows what he's doing. This is no time to get sentimental,_ she told herself. She was letting herself get careless and becoming attached to these people, and it was affecting her judgement.

There was a commotion behind her, and Mizuchi looked back to see that Shou had fallen into the lake and was flailing around in a panic, while Juudai and Kenzan simultaneously tried to drag him out and to reassure him that he wasn't going to drown in three feet of water. She sighed resignedly and turned away.

_You'd better know what you're doing, Takuma._

HR

It was very late at night, and most sane people wouldn't still be awake, but Pegasus wasn't "most people", sane or not. He had been working late at the office that night, going over various reports. Kaiba Corporation was giving him a hard time as usual, but he was accustomed enough to Kaiba's tactics to know how to handle him. The communication from Schroider Corporation was far more to his liking - Siegfried, at least, knew how to treat a business partner! Pegasus made a mental note to go pay him a visit soon, both for business purposes and to enjoy the lavish hospitality. The dear boy tended to go a bit overboard in trying to prove how much better he was than... well, just about everyone, really, but it was fun for Pegasus to have so much attention paid to him. He liked attention.

But coming home after a long day to the comfort of his own home was nice, too. He paused in the front hall to say good evening to Crocketts.

"No excitement today, I suppose?" he asked casually.

"All quiet, sir. How were things at work?"

"Surprisingly dull," said Pegasus. He had, truthfully, been expecting some fallout ever since he'd dismissed Mr. Phoenix, but thus far nothing had come of it since the night Hayato had eavesdropped on him. The worst that had come up was signs that he'd attempted to set a computer virus loose on the company's network, but it had been found and dealt with that same night. Apparently Mr. Phoenix was better at art than he was at computers.

"Good," said Crocketts. "You need more days like that."

Pegasus pressed a hand to his heart with an exaggerated expression of surprise. "Oh, heavens, perish the thought! Do you want me to die of boredom? I always knew you were secretly plotting against me."

His bodyguard didn't seem to know how to reply to that, and Pegasus left him while he was still trying to formulate a response. It always amused him when he could put Crocketts off- balance. He tried not to let anyone hear him giggling childishly as he went upstairs to his rooms.

Upon reaching his chamber, however, he smiled for quite a different reason.

"Good evening, my dear," he said. "Sorry to keep you waiting up. You didn't get bored, did you?"

There was no answer, but he didn't expect one. The portrait he was addressing just smiled gently at him, as she had been smiling for the past seventeen years. Maybe he was a little crazy for carrying on conversations with a painting, but... well, there were certainly worse conversational partners. She was a good listener, and it gave him comfort to talk to her. Even after all this time, he still missed Cyndia, but as the years went by, he somehow found that he felt closer to her now than he had since she had died. He felt like she would have liked the person he had finally grown up to be, and it gave him some comfort.

He settled back in his favorite chair and propped his feet on a footstool. Later he would probably call for a drink and settle back with a good book, but now he just planned to unwind and let his thoughts drift for a while. He got so few moments where he had nothing to do and nothing to worry about that it was worthwhile to savor them while they lasted. In Pegasus's life, just about anything could come along and interrupt them at any moment.

For example, the menacing figure lurking in his doorway. That could really ruin a person's night. Pegasus rolled his eye heavenward and sighed loudly in an exaggerated show of exasperation.

"And just what are you doing in my bedroom?" he asked.

If his lack of fear bothered the visitor, he didn't show it.

"I want to have a word with you," said Mr. Phoenix.

"Sorry. Business hours are between eight and ten. Try again some other time," Pegasus suggested.

"Very funny. Be serious, for once," said Mr. Phoenix. "You aren't going to joke your way out of this one."

"Oh, very well," said Pegasus, sighing. "Bore me, then. I'm sure you have a dramatic speech worked out, and I'd hate to steal your spotlight."

"You already have!" Mr. Phoenix snarled. "My work should have shone across the world, and _you_ had to snuff it out! But I'm going to give you a chance to reconsider."

"Sorry. Nothing doing," said Pegasus. "For one thing, I've already filled out all the paperwork for your dismissal, and I'd hate to let all that work go to waste."

"I said, no jokes!" Mr. Phoenix hissed.

"Sorry. Why not just ask me not to breathe and be done with it?"

"Don't tempt me. We can still settle this like reasonable people."

"I'm an eccentric and possibly insane billionaire and you're apparently laboring under delusions of grandeur," said Pegasus. "I don't think acting like reasonable people is an option."

"Enough!" Mr. Phoenix snapped. He took a breath and calmed himself. "What do you say to a wager? We'll duel. If I win, I get my job back and things go back to the way they were. If I lose, I'll go away and you'll never see or hear from me again. What do you say?"

"Hmm," said Pegasus, tapping a finger to his chin in an expression of mock- thoughtfulness. "Nope! Don't think so."

Mr. Phoenix looked taken aback. This was not the way it went in the duelist's code of conduct.

"You have to accept. I challenged you!"

"And I turned you down," said Pegasus. "Let's face it - if I dueled you, you'd pull out some fancy card I've never seen before or use some kind of magic on me, and I'd lose, and then I'd end up with my soul trapped in a card or something equally vexing." He smiled smugly at Mr. Phoenix's stunned expression. "Don't forget, not only did I invent this game, I was the first person to cheat at it. I know how these things work."

Mr. Phoenix looked stunned for a moment. Then his face twisted into a nasty snarl, and his eyes began to glow.

"You think you're so clever," he hissed. "You think I can't hurt you if you don't duel me, is that it? Well, I didn't duel your friend with the sunglasses and he won't be bothering me again."

That got a genuine reaction at last.

"What did you do to Crocketts?" Pegasus demanded.

"Nothing. I just smartened him up a little. And I can do the same to you if you don't cooperate."

Pegasus weighed his options. The doorway was pretty effectively blocked, and Pegasus didn't trust himself to be able to duel his way out. On the other hand, staying here was obviously not an option. He looked apologetically up at the painting.

"Sorry, love," he told her. "I'll be back later, all right?"

With that, he made a flying leap in the direction of one of his bookcases, tugged on one of them, and opened the hidden door behind it. He'd always known that would have a use for that secret passage someday. He slammed the door behind him and listened with satisfaction as his attacker collided with the bookcase a split-second later and scrambled frantically to figure out which book unlocked the closing mechanism. It probably wouldn't take long, but it would take long enough for Pegasus to make a quick getaway, at least into a more secure location so he could call for backup.

He stepped out from behind a painting on the ground floor, darted down a hallway, and nearly collided with Crocketts.

"Oh, thank goodness I found you," Pegasus began, and then realized that maybe under the circumstances, finding him wasn't such a good thing. Crocketts' customary sunglasses had gotten lost somewhere along the line, and his eyes had an unnatural gleam to them.

"On the other hand, maybe not," said Pegasus. He tried to back away, but Crocketts reached out and grabbed his collar.

"You're not going anywhere," he said flatly. "You're staying here with us."

Pegasus slumped, knowing he was defeated.

"I was afraid of that," he said.

* * *

"Waah, that test was hard!" said Juudai as he stepped out into the sunlight. "Some days I swear Professor Chronos has it in for us!"

"It wouldn't have been hard if you had studied," Misawa said as he fell into step beside him. "I didn't find it much of a challenge, myself."

"That's easy for you to say!" Shou complained. "You get perfect grades on everything, no matter what you do! I don't know why you even bother to study."

Misawa shrugged. "I might have missed something."

"Whatever," said Juudai. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure I passed, but it was still hard."

"Good thing you're in Red and nobody cares what your grades are like," Manjoume remarked as he swept by.

"So are you!" Shou shouted at Manjoume's retreating back.

Kenzan bounded up from behind them, looking cheerful and laid-back as ever.

"Hi!" he greeted. "Did you guys have a test?"

"Don't even talk about it," Shou begged.

Kenzan grinned. "Us first years had a test too, but it was easy! I'm pretty sure I aced it!"

Shou gave him a dirty look. Juudai just grinned.

"Congratulations! You'll be moving up in no time," he said cheerfully. "Anyway, the test is over now, so no point in worrying about it, right?"

"Indeed," said a new voice. "It's always most important to think about the future."

Juudai jumped. "Gahh! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

He shot a glare at Saiou, who looked blandly back at him until he subsided. Those purple eyes were a little disconcerting, especially when they were boring into your own without blinking. Juudai shuffled a pace or two backwards.

"Hey, c'mon, stop looking at me like that!" he said.

"I believe you agreed to duel with Edo," said Saiou, as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. "Would you happen to have time for that this afternoon?"

Juudai brightened instantly. "Yeah! I'm ready anytime!"

"Good. It happens that Edo is free today, so I thought you two might like to go ahead and have your game," said Saiou smoothly. "You may have time to prepare your deck. We will be waiting for you in front of the Obelisk Blue dormitory in one hour. Try not to be late."

"I'm never late to a duel!" Juudai declared. "I'll be there!"

As Saiou walked away, he could hear the group exclaiming over Juudai's good fortune, to have an opportunity to duel a pro. Saiou smirked.

_It's only good fortune if you win,_ he thought, _and you aren't going to win._

He had already confirmed that much in his readings. From what he had been able to gather, the boy was a natural duelist, and his residency in the most looked-down-upon dorm in the school had less to do with his ability and more to do with his lack of scholarly interest. However, it was also clear from Saiou's reading that the boy had yet to reach his full potential, and Edo was a professional who regularly beat people twice his age without breaking a sweat. Juudai was no match for him.

_And when he loses, I'll make sure he becomes a permanent non-issue._

Edo was waiting for him in the relative shelter of the trees that grew behind the Obelisk dorm. He hadn't mentioned to Saiou that he would be there, but the two of them always managed to find each other.

"He's on his way," said Saiou. "I gave him an hour to get his deck together."

Edo made an indeterminate noise, which Saiou deciphered as, "Give him all the time you want; it won't make any difference."

"Explain to me why this is important?" he said instead.

"I just want to see how he plays," said Saiou offhandedly. "Reading minds is well and good, but if he's to be an ally to us, it would be useful to see how he handles pressure, and that is something that can only be learned by putting a little pressure on him. Actions at times like that are performed by instinct, not thought, which makes them difficult to read by my usual means."

"If you say so," said Edo lazily. He took out his deck and began shuffling it with smooth, practiced movements. "I don't see how it can do any harm. If he's any good, it might be fun. Nobody else in this place is a decent challenge." He paused in his shuffling, drew a test hand, and reshuffled. "The one who wears the black jacket all the time wasn't bad. Give him a few more years and he might amount to something."

"Did it take you more than two turns to win?" asked Saiou idly.

"Six," said Edo, nodding. "He had an interesting deck, and it took a turn or two to get the feel of it. I've been working on improving mine, too. That's one good thing about this place - it's giving me some fresh ideas."

"I don't suppose you'd let me have a look," said Saiou offhandedly.

Edo shrugged. "Sure. Might as well."

He passed the deck to Saiou, who accepted it almost reverently. After all, it wasn't just anyone who got to handle Edo's cards. When Edo wasn't carrying them around himself, they were often left under lock and key. Even Saiou, who was one of the few people Edo trusted absolutely, had rarely touched them. They were powerful cards, in more ways than one. Saiou could almost feel them thrumming under his fingers.

There was a magic to the Duel Monsters game that most people had forgotten, or didn't think about. Saiou hadn't forgotten. Under the most ancient rules, the loser lost so much more than bragging rights, and Saiou, with his power over cards, meant to call that rule into play just a bit. Not a lot - just enough to crack someone's fighting spirit. All he had to do was twist the forces that surrounded these cards just a little - like so - and as soon as Juudai lost this duel, it would be a long time if ever before he gathered the courage to have another one. So sad for him, but nothing unusual with Edo, who had never been known to be gentle with duelists less capable than he.

"It seems you are learning here, after all," he said, passing the deck back to Edo. "I approve. Your duel should go well."

Edo raised an eyebrow. "Should? Do my ears deceive me, or are you actually not sure about something?"

"I am reasonably certain," said Saiou. "Let's leave it at that. Unless you're truly worried that you can't win against a second-year student..."

"You know better than that," Edo said. "I'll be done with him in under five minutes."

"Excellent," Saiou said.

They began a leisurely stroll back to the front of the Blue dormitory, but even at the relaxing pace they set, they still reached the arranged meeting place several minutes before Juudai did.

"I'm ready!" he said, waving his Duel Disk over his head like some sort of high-tech flag. He had a small entourage with him, Saiou noticed, and among them was Mizuchi. He gave her a quizzical look and was met by a noncommittal shrug. He decided she must not be feeling talkative at the moment - not a rare occurrence - and turned his attention back to Juudai and Edo, who were squaring off on either side of the front walkway.

"Don't go easy on me just because I'm not a pro!" said Juudai.

Edo smirked. "Well, I did think about cutting you a little slack and letting you go first, but since you insist... Draw!" He whipped out a card with a swift, practiced movement, and studied his hand. "I use Polymerization to fuse E-Hero Featherman and E-Hero Burst Lady to form E- Hero Phoenix Guy!"

It was a solid opening play, and Saiou waited for the impressed reaction. What he got surprised him almost as much as what he'd seen the night he'd tried to read Juudai's mind.

Juudai _laughed_. And not an ugly laugh not an "I can't believe you think you can beat me with that puny monster" laugh, but a laugh of wonder and delight.

"Wow, that's great!" Juudai cheered. "I can't believe you got that monster out on the first turn!"

"Oh?" said Edo, raising an eyebrow. "I _did_ tell you I'm a pro, right?"

Juudai just continued to grin cheerfully at him. "Finish your move."

"Fine. I set two cards face down and end my turn," said Edo, a note of frustration in his voice. He had barely made his first move and already his patience seemed to be wearing thin.

It was about to get thinner. With the metaphorical spotlight on him, Juudai eagerly drew his first card, nodded as though it were exactly what he had been expecting to draw, and flashed another of those glowing smiles at Edo.

"All right, for my first move... I'll use Polymerization to fuse E-Hero Featherman and E- Hero Burst Lady to form E-Hero Flame Wingman!"

There was a whoop from Juudai's cheering section. Edo simply stared in mute astonishment, and Saiou had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping.

_The same deck..._

He shook himself. Even for someone who believed with all his soul in the power of Destiny, it was still unnerving to come upon such a coincidence unexpectedly. He was beginning to get the feeling that a lot more things would come up unexpectedly, the longer he kept his eye on Juudai. He didn't like that feeling at all. He barely paid attention as the two monsters went into their first scuffle, accompanied by a flurry of spells and traps. Not only did the boy in red play a deck very similar to Edo's, he seemed to have a good handle on how to use it.

_No one can use those cards the way Edo can,_ he reassured himself. _Those cards were created for him. They are his by birthright, and no one else's._

Still, there was only so much faith he could put into that when so far the boy seemed to be holding his own. Edo did not look pleased.

Mizuchi did not look pleased, either, which surprised him all over again, because it wasn't the duel or its players she was displeased with. She was giving Saiou a look of barely- restrained fury that took him aback; it was rare for the two of them to be in anything other than perfect accord on anything. He couldn't imagine what he'd done to irritate her now.

_Maybe I'd better find out..._ he thought reluctantly. He cast a glance at the duel - Edo seemed to have recovered from his initial surprise and was pulling together a counterattack. He could probably look after himself for a few minutes, and everyone would be too busy watching the duel to notice if he slipped away to talk to Mizuchi. He beckoned to her before turning and walking away. He didn't look back, but after a moment of hesitation he felt her follow after him. They crept around to the side of the dormitory where they could talk in privacy.

"All right, what was that look for?" he demanded.

She met his gaze coldly. "What did you do to Edo's deck?"

"Nothing important."

"If it wasn't important, you wouldn't have done it!"

"It was merely a precaution," said Saiou loftily.

"I've never known you to cheat," Mizuchi said. "I want to know why you've decided to start now."

"It isn't cheating," said Saiou. "Edo will win or not win by his own merits. What I did was nothing more than... a little surprise for whoever loses. Something to heighten the stakes."

Mizuchi was not mollified. She folded her hands over her chest and gave her brother a glare. "And do either of them know about this?"

"No."

"Then it's still not fair," said Mizuchi. She sighed. "Takuma, what's going on? This isn't like you at all."

"I'm just trying to keep Edo safe," said Saiou, with a hint of defensiveness. "We don't know what this boy is capable of. I don't plan on taking any chances with him. What I have initiated will remove any threat subtly and painlessly. No one will even notice anything is wrong with him."

"So you admit something will be wrong with him."

Saiou shrugged a little. "He will be disinclined to cause trouble, that's all." His sister's accusations stung him - weren't they on the same side? Hadn't they agreed that Juudai needed close watching, that he was strange and possibly dangerous? She had never balked at him using his mind powers on other people, not for any reason. They had always agreed that it was them against the rest of the world, and that other people deserved whatever they got. "What difference does it make to you? Do you care what happens to him? Have you deluded yourself into thinking he's your _friend_?"

Mizuchi met his gaze defiantly.... but the fight went out of her almost at once.

"He's not a bad person," she said, but without much conviction behind it.

"No worse than any of the others, you mean? I've seen his mind - you don't need to tell me what he's like. You don't need me to tell you that the moment he realized what you're like - what _we're_ like - any pretense of friendship would be over. What makes you think he deserves your protection?"

Mizuchi sighed. "You're right. I know you're right. It just doesn't _feel_ right."

"Trust me," said Saiou, with the confidence that came from years of always being right. "I know what I'm doing."

His sister nodded glumly, plainly still not fully convinced, which annoyed Saiou. She was usually so reasonable, and it confused him that she should be so recalcitrant now. He was not in the best of moods when he returned to the scene of the duel. There was no longer a duel going on, though, and no more crowd to observe it. All that was left was Edo, leaning against a convenient tree, looking calm and inscrutable. That gave Saiou a sense of relief; Edo would not be looking calm and inscrutable if he'd lost. He wouldn't be looking jubilant for a win against a grade-schooler, either, so he had probably won, which meant all was well with the world.

"Where did you run off to?" Edo inquired. "You missed a good duel."

"My apologies. Mizuchi and I had a small issue that needed to be discussed," Saiou replied. "I'm sure you did quite well without me... You didn't go too hard on the boy, did you?"

"Not too hard," said Edo. That odd expression crossed his face again. "Actually we tied."

"What?"

"I underestimated him. Next time I'll know better," said Edo mildly. "He is good, though. Very good. His strategy isn't perfect but it's close enough." He smiled suddenly. "I have to admit it, you proved me wrong again. I think this guy really might be the one we're looking for."

Saiou nodded, doing his best to keep his expression neutral. Tied... with no winner and no loser, the penalty couldn't take hold. They were right back at square one, except that now Edo was actually starting to trust the boy.

"I always do my best for you," said Saiou quitely.

_Danm you, Destiny!_

* * *

Pegasus was being hard to pin down.

Not that this was anything unusual. When Pegasus was feeling like getting involved in his workers' lives, it seemed that he could be constantly underfoot, but when he was in one of his research phases, he could disappear into his libraries and workshops for days. There were times when he had to be reminded to eat. Gekkou had done that job several times before, himself, so when his beloved "big brother" seemed to have forgotten that the rest of the world existed, Gekkou went looking for him.

The door was locked.

Gekkou stood outside Pegasus's office, feeling a little as though he had just seen the sun rise in the North. Pegasus did not, as a rule, lock the twins out of his office. Out of specific rooms on that floor, perhaps, but never the main office where he did most of his mundane jobs. People needed to get in there to deliver important documents and hold consultations with the great man. He may not have been in his office one hundred percent of the time, but the door was usually open. And even if it wasn't, Gekkou's key should have made it so. Today, though, it wouldn't. He looked blankly at his key, and at the door, as though he thought he might have ended up on the wrong floor by accident. No, this had to be the right place - only Pegasus decorated his main hallway with brightly colored paintings of the Toon World monsters and framed Funny Rabbit memorabilia - and the key still had his name and identification number on it. Everything seemed right, which meant something had to be wrong.

Feeling nervous, Gekkou rapped on the door.

"Who is it?" asked a toneless voice. It took a moment for Gekkou to realize that the speaker was Pegasus himself. How could someone who usually sounded so animated be so emotionless?

"It's me, Gekkou. Can I come in?"

"Not now. I'm busy."

"With what?"

"Something important."

"Then let me help," said Gekkou, uselessly trying again to open the locked door. "I'm worried about you, Pegasus."

"Your worry would be better invested elsewhere." A hint of emotion was beginning to creep into Pegasus's voice, but it was coldly angry in a way he'd never heard it before. "Stay out of my business."

"Your business is my business. I work here, too," said Gekkou, showing a flash of anger himself.

"Unless you want that to change, I suggest you do as I say."

Gekkou backed away from the door as though it had burned him. Suddenly he didn't want it open, didn't want to see what was on the other side, and for the first time in his life, he didn't want to see Pegasus. He didn't even bother to reply, but simply turned and fled.

But not far - only as far as his brother's office. Yakou, the eternal workaholic, was up to his elbows in computer printouts full of complicated-looking code. He didn't even flinch as the door to his office was thrown open without a care for the expensive paneling on his wall. He did notice, however, when the vibration sent a few papers from a precariously balanced stack swishing to the floor.

"Stop that," Yakou said, without looking up. "You're going to make me lose my place... Oh, it's just you. What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Something is wrong with Pegasus," said Gekkou.

That got Yakou's attention. "How wrong?"

"He threatened to fire me."

"...He couldn't."

"He did," said Gekkou. "He's locked himself into his office, he won't come out, and he wouldn't let me in. There's something strange about his voice - he just doesn't sound like himself."

"That's stating it mildly," said Yakou. His expression had turned tense. "You don't suppose... There's no way that thing could have gotten him. We sent Mr. Phoenix away days ago."

"Well, _something_ is wrong with him," said Gekkou, a bit obstinately. The whole situation was so strange to him that he had trouble convincing himself he hadn't imagined it. Pegasus never spoke to him that way. Pegasus never spoke to _anyone_ that way.

Yakou ran his fingers through his already untidy hair. "I could get the door open..."

Gekkou nodded a silent acquiescence. While both twins had been trained foremost as artists and duelists, Yakou had learned somewhere along the line that he had a knack for computers and programming. He wasn't anywhere near the league of greats like Seto Kaiba or Siegfried von Schroider, but he generally knew how to make them do what he wanted them to do, and he was intimately familiar with the inner workings of Industrial Illusions' security system. In fact, he knew it better than Pegasus himself did (who was, after all, more interested in art and history than computer coding). If he wanted to get into Pegasus's office, he would.

"Give me a moment," he said.

He clicked a few things on his computer, frowned a little, and then shrugged.

"You're right - we're locked out," he said unnecessarily. "He's changed things so that no one can enter but him. Hmm..."

He typed something, confidently pressed "Enter", and then scowled as the computer spat back a line of something unintelligible. At least, it was unintelligible to Gekkou, who was anxiously watching over his brother's shoulder even though he knew nothing about the procedure. Yakou muttered something under his breath and typed a few more things at a rapid pace, stared at the results, and typed some more. Gekkou fidgeted.

"Stop twitching," said Yakou irritably. "I'm almost done... there we are. The door should take our passcards now."

"Then what?" asked Gekkou.

"What do you mean, then what? We go in and talk to Pegasus, whether he likes it or not. And if somebody's done something to them..." Yakou trailed off, his eyes glittering. If someone _had_ done something to Pegasus, well... Gekkou wouldn't have felt sorry for him but he wouldn't have wanted to stand and watch what his brother did to the person, either.

They went upstairs. There weren't very many other people around - it seemed that most anyone who would have been working closely with Pegasus had been sent away. Within the windowless inner hallways of the building, it felt as though the twins were the only two people left in the world. Even the cartoon drawings on the walls managed to look sinister in the glaring florescent lights. Had they been this bright before? Usually Pegasus favored softer, more natural light that was easy on his sensitive vision. Gekkou felt an increasing sense of uneasiness that sent cold prickles down the back of his neck.

They reached the door. Gekkou hesitated, but his bolder brother reached out and ran his card through the scanner. This time the door clicked open, and Yakou pushed his way inside.

But not very far inside. The office, with its elegant furnishings and wide picture window, seemed to have faded away into a vague white blur. The shapes of the furniture could be faintly discerned, but it was as though the entire room were engulfed in a thick white cloud. Sitting quite still behind the shape where the desk seemed to be was a human figure. It spoke.

"I told you not to come in here," Pegasus said, his voice soft and dangerous. "You weren't meant to see this. Now you're going to pay."

In an instant he was standing, without having seemed to move at all. He was simply and silently on his feet, with his Duel Disk raised threateningly. Yakou put himself between his brother and Pegasus, blocking Gekkou from entering the room.

"Leave," said Yakou tersely, glaring at his twin over his shoulder. "Get help. I'll do what I can here."

"But..." Gekkou's protested.

He couldn't say anything else, because the door suddenly slammed itself in his face. He wrestled with it, but it refused to open, even when he tried his key card. Behind the door, he could hear the sounds of a battle, but he could not get in to help. He pounded uselessly at the door until his hands ached before finally giving up. He walked away, his throat burning with unshed tears.

He wandered vaguely, not even sure where he was going, too stunned to really think about what had just happened to him. He walked down the stairs in a daze, hardly noticing what he was walking past, until he was stopped abruptly when he reached a landing and walked right into someone coming the other way.

"Sorry, sorry!" said the someone. "I was looking the other - hey, Mr. Tenma, what's wrong?"

Gekkou blinked a few times, focusing on the boy in front of him. It was Hayato. His friend. Someone he trusted. Yakou had said "Get help" but where was Gekkou supposed to get it? There weren't but so many people who would understand what to do about a situation like this or even believe in it, but... Well, Pegasus had always seemed to trust Hayato with things, and really, at this point, what could it hurt?

"Pegasus is in trouble," said Gekkou slowly, as though he couldn't quite remember how to talk. "The Light got him... I think it's going to get my brother, too. I'm not really sure what to do..."

Hayato looked back at him, momentarily uncomprehending. "What do you mean, the light?" "I'm not quite sure. It was something they were doing research on before," said Gekkou. "It's the same thing that took Mr. Phoenix. We thought we'd gotten rid of it when we sent him away, but..." Hayato listened to this muddled explanation with a frown, obviously doing his labored best to make sense of it all. Then his expression cleared into one of firm resolve.

"Don't worry, Mr. Tenma," he said. "It'll be okay. We'll get help. I know some people who would know what to do, so don't worry about a thing!"

Gekkou stared at him, not quite sure what to make of that pronouncement. He found that in his heart, he didn't believe a word of it, but Hayato looked so serious that he couldn't bring himself to express any doubt.

"Thank you," he said, forcing a smile.

Hayato patted his arm reassuringly. "I mean it. You don't know my friends. I don't think there's anything they can't do. They'll handle this, you'll see."

"You really believe that, don't you?" said Gekkou, a little surprised.

"Absolutely," said Hayato. "And so should you."

Gekkou nodded, not saying anything. He would have given a lot to have that kind of rock-solid faith, but it was reassuring all the same to know that someone did.

_Maybe it will be all right,_ he thought, and almost laughed at himself. Really, what were a bunch of schoolchildren going to do?

**To Be Continued**


	5. Arrival

**Arrival**

**By: SilvorMoon**

"He did not!"

"He did!"

"He did _not_!"

"He totally did!" Momoe insisted. "Nobody else would, so he must have done it!"

"He wouldn't," Asuka insisted. "Trust me, I _know_."

"Then who did?" Junko piped up. "They didn't get up there all by themselves!"

"How should I know who did it?" Asuka retorted. "All I know is, it wasn't my brother."

Mizuchi listened to this conversation and tried to hide a smile. She rarely got involved in these conversations, but it was usually good fun to watch those three get into differences of opinion. She got the impression that the three of them had known each other since the cradle, and could practically read each other's thoughts by now, so watching them get into one of their infrequent disagreements had the air of novelty about it. It had occurred to her at some point that when these things happened, it was usually Asuka against Junko and Momoe, rather than Asuka and either of her friends against the other. They weren't so much a group of three as a pair of two who just happened to spend most of their time with Asuka. And as for Mizuchi...

At first, she had felt herself to be a fifth wheel, and had kept out of the way. That had lasted only a few days, before she had worked up her courage to voice an opinion, and Asuka had backed her up. The two of them usually tended to see eye to eye, and lately she had begun to form an opinion that Asuka had more in common with her than with her two oldest friends. She supposed she should have felt bad about that, until she realized that they had been treating Asuka as something a little apart from them long before Mizuchi came along. They treated her with a level of deference that they didn't show any of the other students, an implied acknowledgment that Asuka outshone them in just about everything. And if Asuka wanted to treat Mizuchi with respect, they assumed she had a good reason for it and treated Mizuchi accordingly.

"How is it that you're so sure it wasn't your brother?" asked Mizuchi.

"Because," said Asuka, "Fubuki already ran Professor Chronos's underwear up the flagpole back in his first year. He wouldn't do it again. He'd consider it lazy to pull the same prank twice."

"Maybe he forgot he did it and decided to do it again," Momoe suggested.

"That could be it," Asuka allowed, "but probably not. More likely this is a copycat."

"Or someone who just happened to get the same idea," said Mizuchi.

"That's possible too," said Asuka. "It wasn't really his best idea. He's had better ones... 'better' being a relative term."

The conversation was interrupted as Juudai came bounding up the path to meet them. He was closely followed by Shou and Kenzan, who looked unusually pleased about something.

"Hi guys!" Juudai called. "What's up?"

"Just chatting," said Asuka. "What are you boys so excited about?"

Kenzan grinned. "Fubuki dared us to steal Chronos's boxers and run them up the flagpole. Didja see?"

"Aha!" said Momoe triumphantily. "I told you it was him!"

"No, it wasn't. It was them," Asuka retorted.

"But he put them up to it!"

"A technicality."

"Who cares whose idea it was? It was funny!" Juudai declared. "Anyway, I just came to tell you that Fubuki and the rest of us are going to be celebrating down by the beach if you want to join us! We've got a cooler full of sodas and some snacks and Fubuki sweet-talked Ayukawa- sensei into letting us borrow the volleyball net. We're gonna have a blast!"

"Now, that's something I can understand," said Asuka. "Just let me go change and I'll be right there."

Junko and Momoe agreed that swimming sounded like a good idea. Mizuchi was less certain, but she felt bad about being the lone dissenter, so she murmured acquiescence and returned to her room to find her swimsuit.

Within a few minutes, the whole crew had gathered on the beach. It wasn't hard to find where Fubuki had set up his volleyball net. He and Juudai were already batting the ball back and forth, laughing as it bounced away from them and threatened to roll off into the ocean. Shou, true to form, was staying well away from the water's edge, helping Kenzan build a sand castle. The two of them were bickering, as usual - at the moment, over the best way to add a tower to their construction without it falling down. Manjoume was sitting a little apart from them, looking ill at ease and somewhat defenseless without his customary black jacket.

"Hi, guys!" Asuka called. "Sorry we took so long."

The boys assured her that no one minded the wait, except for Manjoume, who seemed to have been momentarily struck speechless at the sight of Asuka in a swimsuit. Not that she was showing a great deal more skin than usual, as she was wearing a simple blue one-piece. Junko and Momoe, by contrast, were both sporting colorful bikinis, earning appreciative glances from the unattached males. Mizuchi was drawing her share of appreciation, too, and she tried not to fidget. She only owned a swimsuit at all because of the amount of time her family, and hence Mizuchi herself, spent traveling and staying in hotels with pools, and even then she didn't use it very often. She'd brought it with her on an afterthought, reasoning that it might actually be useful on a tropical island.

"Glad you're here!" said Juudai, who seemed to be the least affected by their appearance. "Any of you want to play volleyball with us? It's no fun with just two!"

"I'll play!" said Junko.

"Me too!" said Momoe.

Both girls scurried over to join Fubuki, who gave his carefree, "Hey, what can I do?" grin. Juudai turned his attention to his best friends.

"Hey, are you guys going to be on my side or aren't you?" he asked.

"I'm no good at volleyball," Shou complained. "I can't get the ball over the net!"

"You shouldn't be so short," said Manjoume. He stood up from where he'd been basking in the sun and dusted himself off. "I guess I could give it a shot. Maybe with my help you won't lose."

"Who needs you?" said Kenzan. "You're lousy at sports. Let me show it's done!"

He got up and sauntered across the sand to join his "big brother." As he stood, Mizuchi's eye was drawn to a large scar that ran almost the entire length of his shin. Apparently she wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"Hey, where did you get that?" Fubuki asked. "I never noticed that before."

"Get what?" asked Kenzan, blinking.

"That scar on your leg," Fubuki persisted.

"I wondered about that too," said Juudai. "Were you in an accident or something?"

Kenzan nodded. "Yeah, I got caught in a rockslide one time."

"How did you get caught in a rockslide?" asked Shou, eyes wide. Everyone's attention was now fixed firmly on Kenzan. It was obvious that no one was going to play any volleyball until they'd gotten the whole story.

"Well, it's kind of crazy," said Kenzan. "There was a big dig a few miles from my home - some guys had found some dinosaur skeletons, and I wanted to go see them, so I snuck out there for a look. While I was poking around, the rock shifted and came crashing down on me. Tore my leg up real good. There wasn't much left of the bone, it was so bad, so the field medics kinda put me together out of whatever was lying around. They sterilized one of the bones they'd found and put it in place of the bone I lost."

"So you've got a _dinosaur_ bone in your leg?" asked Juudai.

"Yeah, but that's not the half of it," said Kenzan, grinning proudly. "You know how bones have marrow and blood cells and stuff? Well, this one does too. I mean, it really works. I've got dinosaur DNA!"

"You're joking," said Manjoume. "Nobody could do that. It's not possible."

"It's true!" Kenzan insisted. "It makes me stronger than your average guy. And look what I can do!"

He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again with a proud grin. Instead of his usual warm brown, they were a strange greenish gold, with slit pupils like a cat. He laughed at his friends' awestruck expressions.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he said.

Mizuchi couldn't speak. The whole situation was almost frightening to her. All her life, she had been told that being different was what made her unacceptable, and so she should do her best to keep anyone from ever finding out that there was something unusual about her. The message was clear: the moment anyone found out her secret, she would be rejected. Now here was this boy willingly telling all of his friends that he was some kind of dinosaur mutant! She couldn't imagine what would motivate him to do something so insane...

"That is so cool!" Juudai exclaimed. "Do it again, do it again!"

Kenzan laughed. "I know, it's awesome! I'm the world's last living dinosaur!"

"I'm surrounded by weirdos," Manjoume complained, rolling his eyes. "All the people I could end up rooming with, and I'm stuck with a human lizard."

"I really do hang out with the coolest people," said Fubuki, with his usual good cheer.

"How come you never told us?" asked Shou.

"I dunno," said Kenzan with a shrug. "I guess it just never came up."

"You all... don't really sound surprised," said Mizuchi, still a little dazed. "You aren't bothered at all by the idea that he's...?"

"Why would we care?" asked Juudai. "Kenzan's still our friend no matter what."

"He was weird before," Manjoume said. "Doesn't make much difference now that we know why."

"Thanks for you support!" said Kenzan with a roll of his eyes.

"Things like this happen all the time around here," said Junko to Mizuchi. "I got kidnapped by a wild monkey once."

"You get used to all the weird stuff after a while," Momoe added.

"So anyway," said Kenzan, "weren't we going to play some volleyball?"

Mizuchi did not play volleyball. She sat on the sidelines and took over Kenzan's job of helping build the sand castle, pleasing Shou immensely, but most of her attention wasn't on it. She watched the others frocking on the sand, apparently not the least concerned by Kenzan's startling revelation. It was very much, in fact, as though they still considered him their friend even though he was different. It gave her a lot to think about.

When at last the sun began to set, the boys reluctantly packed up their volleyball net (Juudai and his roommates had won by a healthy margin, but Fubuki promised to make it up to his teammates later). As the group began to depart, Mizuchi fell in step alongside Asuka.

"Can I talk to you in private?" she asked quietly. "I have something I want to ask."

Asuka looked surprised, but she answered, "Of course. You can always talk to me, Mizuchi."

Mizuchi sighed a little, relieved. "Thank you. I want to talk to somebody, and you've always been so kind to me..."

"That's what friends are for," said Asuka. "I'm a good listener. Do you want to come to my room?"

"That might be best," Mizuchi agreed.

They returned to Asuka's room in silence, as Mizuchi tried to gather her nerve to say what she wanted to say. It wasn't until they reached the safety of the dormitory and Asuka had shut the door behind them that she even considered trying to talk.

"You... really weren't very surprised by Kenzan," she managed.

"I've seen weirder things," Asuka answered. "This is the most unusual school I think there's ever been."

"So it wouldn't bother you if someone else you knew had something strange about them?"

"Most of my friends have something strange about them," said Asuka. "Even Fubuki. It doesn't really matter. What brought on all these questions, anyway? ...Wait, are you saying...?"

"What if there was something about me?" Mizuchi persisted.

"I had a feeling that might be it," Asuka replied. "Why don't you just tell me what it is, and I'll tell you what I think of it?"

"It might be easier if I show you," Mizuchi replied.

She walked over to Asuka's dresser and stood in front of the mirror. She raised her hands so that they weren't quite touching the glass, and her reflection shimmered and warped until it was not there at all, replaced by an image of the sun setting over her garden back home. She held the image there until she was certain Asuka had seen it, and then let it fade. Then she stood back, waiting for Asuka's reaction.

"Wow," said Asuka. "That... wasn't what I was expecting. How did you do that?"

"I'm not sure," Mizuchi replied. "It's just something I've been able to do, ever since I was small. I can use mirrors to look at different places - anywhere there's a reflection, like a pond or a window. Sometimes I'll catch a glimpse of the future. I can do other things, too."

"And your brother... and Edo...?"

"They both know. My brother has powers, too, but they're different from mine," said Mizuchi. "Edo is completely ordinary. We adopted him after Takuma predicted he'd help us someday. Don't tell him I said any of this - he doesn't like for us to talk about... what we are."

"You're not a _what_," said Asuka. "But if it's important to you, I won't tell."

"Thank you," said Mizuchi. "Takuma means well... He's very protective. The rest of the world isn't like here, and it's been difficult, sometimes."

"I understand," said Asuka. "You can trust me."

Mizuchi colored a little. "Takuma always told me that people would be afraid of me if they knew what I could do. Most of the time he was right about that. Even our parents..."

"I'm not afraid of you," said Asuka. "I don't think any of the others would be, either, if you told them. You should give it a try."

"I'll think about it," said Mizuchi. She gave Asuka a shaky smile. "It feels strange... this is the first time in years I've been able to talk to someone besides Takuma and Edo about all this."

"Well, it's like I said - I'm a good listener," Asuka replied.

Mizuchi was thoughtful for a moment. "Then maybe I will make it a little easier for you to listen. Do you have a small compact, or a pocket mirror? Something you could carry with you easily."

"Somewhere. Let me find it."

Asuka rummaged through a drawer before pulling out a small folding mirror, obviously seldom used. Mizuchi reflected that Asuka was one of the most beautiful women she knew, and also the least vain. How else could she live not knowing where her mirror was? Mizuchi took the silvery disc from her and studied it a moment, and the glass shimmered at her touch. After a moment, she gave a satisfied nod and passed it back.

"I've taught it to recognize me," she said. "Keep it close to you. Anytime you need me, just look into it and say my name, and if I'm near anything with a reflection, I'll hear you."

"Thank you," said Asuka, accepting the trinket gratefully. "I'll take good care of it."

Mizuchi gave her a quick smile. "Well, if it breaks, it will be easy for me to make a new one."

"I'll try not to break it anyway," Asuka answered with a smile. "It's bad luck, you know."

"My mirrors are never bad luck," said Mizuchi primly. "I guarantee it. And now I should go. I still have homework to do for Professor Chronos, and I've barely started. I meant to do it this afternoon, but..."

"Slacking off on Professor Chronos's work is never good," Asuka agreed.

"I know," said Mizuchi. "I'm glad I did anyway. Goodnight, Asuka."

"Goodnight, Mizuchi.

Mizuchi returned to her room, smiling contentedly.

_I really do need to talk to Takuma about these people. They're not what we thought they were at all,_ she mused. _Won't he be surprised to find out we actually have friends here..._

* * *

There was a noisy crowd drawing near to Osiris Red. This was mainly because Manjoume had volunteered the use of his personal hot-springs in the new wing for his male friends to use as an aid to scrubbing off all the beach sand they had picked up. The idea of an indoor pool party appealed to everyone involved, so their spirits were high as they reached the dormitory.

And were squashed flat as soon as Juudai opened the door.

"Just _where_," said Misawa frostily, "have you _been?_ I have been looking all over for you people!"

"We were just down at the beach playing volleyball," said Juudai. "Sorry we didn't invite you too, but..."

"It's a good thing you didn't," said Misawa. "I just got a phone call from Hayato. It seems he's been trying to get hold of the rest of you but for _some reason_ no one else was available!"

"Aw, geez," said Juudai. "Well, I'm sorry I missed that, but..."

"Let me finish!" Misawa snapped. "While you all were playing volleyball, Industrial Illusions was taken over by a crazed madman, and you all missed it!"

There was a moment of silence. Fubuki said, "Whoa."

"Are you serious?" asked Shou. "How could that happen? Wouldn't someone have heard about it?"

"Apparently not," said Misawa. "The way Hayato tells it, the tracks have been covered very neatly. Come inside and I'll tell you about it."

Much subdued, the group filed into the common room and settled down wherever they could find a place to sit. Manjoume muttered irritably about getting sand on his furniture, but he kept it to a minimum and no one really paid attention to him. Misawa remained standing, pacing in front of them like a teacher about to deliver a lecture.

"The way I hear it," he said, "the cause of the trouble is a man named Arthur Phoenix who used to work for Industrial Illusions until recently."

"Arthur Phoenix," Juudai repeated. "That's Edo's family name too. I wonder if they're related?"

"They couldn't be," said Manjoume. "Everybody knows 'Edo Phoenix' is a stage name. He's part of the Saiou family - a step-brother or something."

"They could still be related," said Juudai.

"Be that as it may," said Misawa, speaking over them, "it seems that he's picked up some kind of magical parasite called the Light of Ruin that's taken over his mind."

"Kind of like Darkness, then?" Fubuki suggested. "Only shinier?"

"Something like that," Misawa said. "Apparently this Light spreads like a disease. He's already passed it on to Pegasus and one of the vice presidents, and he's in the process of spreading it down through the ranks. And if all of Industrial Illusions is controlled by the Light..."

"So are the cards," said Juudai.

"And it won't stop there," said Misawa. "Pegasus has connections all over the world, and he's heavily invested in the scientific and artistic communities. If anything dangerous gets a foothold in Industrial Illusions, it could affect the culture of the entire world for years to come, perhaps indefinitely. Which means whatever is causing this, it needs to be stopped as soon as possible."

"So that means we've gotta find this Arthur Phoenix guy and get that Light thing out of him," said Juudai succinctly.

"What do you mean _we_?" asked Shou, alarmed. "We can't just run off to Industrial Illusions! We wouldn't even know what to do when we got there!"

"Well, we've got to do something," Juudai argued. "Besides, Hayato is out there. He might be in danger. We can't just leave him to fend for himself!"

"Juudai's right," said Fubuki. "If there's anything we can do to help, we ought to do it."

"How are we going to get there, fly?" asked Manjoume dryly. "Ask someone at the principal's office if we can borrow a boat from them? Maybe just steal one? _That_ won't get us in trouble."

"Hey, that Edo guy has a boat!" Kenzan piped up.

"We can't steal his boat either," said Shou.

"No, wait, Kenzan's right," said Juudai. "We can't steal it, but we can ask. I'm sure he'd let us use it if he knew it was for a good cause."

"Sure," said Manjoume. "A world-champion elite duelist is going to let some random kid from Osiris run off with his boat, because you tell him that the president of Industrial Illusions is possessed. Smart."

"It sounds reasonable to me," said Juudai. "Anyway, I'm going to try! Hang on - I'll be right back as soon as I find Edo!"

Before anyone could object, he'd turned and raced out of the room. Everyone sat perfectly still, saying nothing. The only sound in the room was that of the door creaking slowly shut in Juudai's wake.

"I guess we'd better get dressed," said Shou resignedly.

Meanwhile, unaware of what was about to descend upon him, Edo was pacing restlessly near the edge of the forest. Saiou sat close at hand, watching him with his usual bland expression.

"I have advised you before to be patient," he was saying. "I thought you understood that we would not be rushing this operation."

"I understood that," said Edo. "What I don't understand is what this waiting is accomplishing. I knew it would take some time to figure out where the guy we're looking for. I was okay with that. But now we know who he is and where he is, and I don't understand why we're not talking to him and trying to get him to help us."

"How do you propose we do that?" asked Saiou.

"What do you mean, how? We tell him the truth," said Edo. "We need help and think he's the only one who can help us. Who could resist that? Everyone loves to be needed."

"So what do you propose to tell him when we ask him what we need him for?" asked Saiou. "That we want him to free your father from being possessed by some sort of supernatural entity? No one in their right mind would believe us."

Just then, Juudai came dashing up, panting a little from his run.

"Edo, there you are! I finally found you!" he said. "Listen, can you do us a favor? We need to borrow your boat. We've got to go to Industrial Illusions and find some guy named Arthur Phoenix who's possessed by some weird Light thing. ...Hey, do you think you might be related to him? You've got the same last name."

"Yeah," said Edo. "He's my dad."

"I thought so!" said Juudai triumphantly. "Everybody else said you weren't related, but I figured you had to be. So does this mean we get to use your boat?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Edo, shooting a smug look at Saiou. "What do _you_ think?"

"Just... do whatever you want," said Saiou.

Juudai blinked. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, it's not like that," Edo assured him. "He's just crabby because he lost an argument with me, that's all."

"Ah, I get it!" said Juudai. "Okay, then! I'll go get the others and meet you at the pier!"

"Wait, others?" Edo said. "How many people were you planning to bring?"

"Everybody!" Juudai replied. "See you soon!"

He scampered off again, leaving both Saiou and Edo slightly disgruntled.

"Maybe you're right," said Edo. "Maybe we should have waited for a better time. I guess it can't be helped, though... I'd probably better get down to the boat. You coming?"

"In a moment," said Saiou.

"All right, then. I won't leave without you."

Edo departed. Saiou watched him go, feeling resentment curdling inside him. He took out his cards and stared at them, wishing they could actually talk instead of just communicating in veiled hints. He would have enjoyed giving them a piece of his mind.

"Destiny," he muttered sourly. "What did I ever do to you?"

* * *

Edo's boat had never meant to be home to more than three people. It comfortably accommodated Edo and his adoptive family. It might, if necessary, have been able to provide berths for one or two friends if they didn't mind keeping close quarters. Making room for Juudai and what looked to be everyone he'd ever met was completely out of the question. Juudai, however, had put his foot down and refused to go anywhere if they didn't come with him, and his friends had raised a fuss when Edo tried to overrule him, and Saiou had still been in his sulk and hadn't contributed to the debate. Edo had found himself outnumbered. He could only watch helplessly as half a dozen or so people he had barely spoken to in his life filed aboard his private craft.

_I know Juudai is supposed to be the hero here, so I can't just leave him behind,_ Edo mused as he watched the waves roll away from the prow of the ship, _but why did he have to bring his fan club too? I can't even remember all their names. Asuka's the girl, I remember that. The little one with the glasses is Shou. I remember one of them is called Manjoume but I don't remember which one it is... The guy I dueled the other day, the one in the black jacket. And then there's that guy with all the muscles who looks like a dinosaur, and that other Ra Yellow, and a guy from Obelisk..._

"You're thinking awful hard," said Juudai, coming over to lean on the railing next to Edo.

"Trying to figure out how I got roped into this carnival," said Edo.

"You had a boat," said Juudai.

Edo laughed. "It's a little more than that, I think."

"Yeah, yeah, that's true. This is about your dad, right?"

"Right. It's been a long time since I've seen him... He probably won't even recognize me."

"Everybody said you aren't really related to him," said Juudai. "They told me you're part of Saiou's family. How does that work?"

"I lived with him up until I was about six or seven," Edo replied. "That was when he got hit by that Light stuff for the first time. He turned into a different person overnight. Before, he was always there for me - he'd do anything for me. Suddenly it was like he didn't care about me at all. All he did was sit in his room and draw all day. I finally got so fed up with it, I ran away from home... I don't know why I'm telling you this. I've never told anyone but Saiou and Mizuchi."

"Well, if we're going to go rescue your dad, it might not hurt to know."

"I guess so. Anyway, Saiou found me and took me in, and I've been living as his brother ever since," Edo finished. "Saiou's done a good job of covering up the fact that we aren't related at all, even as step-brothers. He's always tried to protect me."

"Is that why he was so mad about us going to find your dad?"

"Maybe," Edo admitted.

"Anyway, he must be a good guy if he's taken care of you for so long. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you and your dad back together again."

"Hm," said Edo, not really paying attention.

"Don't worry about a thing," Juudai assured him. "No matter what the problem is, we'll take care of it."

"Don't be so overconfident," Edo scolded. "Saiou faced this Light once and he came home covered in blood and so weak he could barely stand up. This isn't going to be easy."

"I never thought it would be," said Juudai. "But you gotta think positive about these things. You'll never get anything done if you just tell yourself you can't do it."

"Saiou would say it doesn't make any difference. He says everything is controlled by Destiny, and everything we do is already determined for us."

Juudai thought about that for a moment, scratching his head thoughtfully.

"Well, that might be true," he allowed, "but I'm thinking I get to decide what my destiny is for myself."

Edo gave Juudai a long look. "Huh. Is that so."

"You got it," said Juudai. He gave a long stretch. "Well, I'm bushed. I'm gonna go find a place to nap until we get there. You oughta sleep too."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it," said Edo.

"Night, then."

Juudai ambled off, yawning and stretching. Edo watched him a moment before sighing and turning his eyes back to the horizon. He knew that they wouldn't be arriving at the city any time within the next few hours, and staring at the empty ocean wasn't going to make the time go by any faster, but he couldn't settle down to sleep just yet.

_I'm going to see my dad._

The thought made his hands sweat, and he shifted his grip on the railing, trying to tell himself it was only the salt spray that made it so slick. He'd been dreaming of the day they'd be together again for years, but now that the moment was at hand...

_He might not even recognize me._

Well, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. The important thing was to make sure his father was safe. Then he could work out the details.

_Assuming there are any details to work out. Assuming he still wants me back after all these years..._

He shook his head vigorously. There was no point in letting himself be snagged in such doubts, especially while he was still miles from shore.

_Come to think of it, I haven't seen Dad in so long, what if I'm the one who doesn't recognize him?_

Edo gave a snarl of annoyance and kicked the railing, which did nothing but make his foot hurt. But at least the pain took his mind off his troubles.

For a while.

* * *

Hayato used to enjoy his job. He'd always loved the creative freedom he'd been given, the appreciation he got, the camaraderie among the other artists. That had been before the change came over Pegasus and everything had gone downhill. Now everything Hayato painted was assigned beforehand, and all the designs had an irritating sameness to them. The assignments themselves were delivered via e-mail, never in person, and they were submitted through a drop- box. His employer remained unreachable in his office, never coming out to mingle with his employees in the way he had always enjoyed doing before. Anyone who dared to complain too much, or to deviate from his orders in any way, was called upstairs for a chat with the CEO, and they would return with a change of heart and a sudden burst of inspiration that left them happily painting white pictures without pause for rest. Several people tired of the new conditions and quit, but they always returned the next day with a more pliable attitude. It wasn't long before Hayato had seen the merits of keeping quiet and doing his job.

But he refused to let anyone make him enjoy it.

Only two things comforted him. One was the fact that he still had a few allies left in Industrial Illusions to keep his spirits up. Gekkou had thus far managed to avoid being brainwashed with the rest, and was doing his best to help the other fortunate individuals to keep their spirits up. He and Hayato had been particularly close lately, as Hayato was the only one he'd told the whole truth to. The other comfort was that Hayato had finally managed to get a phone call through to his friends at Duel Academia, and he had faith that they would come through for him sooner or later. He hoped it would be sooner.

In the meantime, he was eating lunch. This was not as enjoyable as it could have been, since he usually ate in the company of the other young artists, and just now most of them had already gone over to the side of the Light. Hayato could see them off at their own table, dressed in their neat white clothing, something that no one who worked with paints all day ought to be wearing. They were so pristine that they made Hayato feel shabby by comparison. He sighed over his sandwich and forced his eyes away from them.

His phone began to ring. He twitched guiltily, as though he'd done something wrong, but no one else seemed to have noticed. He quickly changed the ringtone to a vibration, got up on the pretense of going to throw away the wrapper his sandwich had come in, and then walked past the trash can and towards the men's room. As soon as he was sure no one was going to eavesdrop on him, he answered the phone.

"Hello?" he said in hushed tones.

"Hi!" said the cheery voice on the other end. "Guess who this is!"

"Juudai!" said Hayato, almost tearful with relief. "Thank goodness! I knew you'd come through for me."

"Don't ever doubt it!" said Juudai. "Hang in there, buddy - we're on the way!"

"On the way? Where are you now?"

"The parking lot."

"The _parking lot?_"

"Yeah, we all are!"

"You all are?" It occurred to Hayato that his conversational skills had dropped significantly in the last few seconds. "What do you mean, you _all_ are? How many of you are there?"

"Well, there's me, and Shou, and Kenzan - you don't know him yet - and Manjoume, Asuka, Fubuki, Misawa, and Edo and Saiou - you don't know them either, but Edo is Mr. Phoenix's son."

"You brought a war party," said Hayato, feeling slightly dazed.

"Well, I didn't know who we were going to need, so I brought everyone," explained Juudai plausibly. "Except Saiou's sister. Saiou didn't want her getting in trouble so he said she had to stay home. He worries about her a lot."

"That doesn't matter! How are all of you going to get in here without drawing attention?"

"I haven't worked that part out yet. Can't we just come in?"

"No," said Hayato. "This place isn't safe right now. Whatever's wrong with Pegasus, it's spreading through the company. If anyone catches you, they're liable to drag you upstairs and do... whatever it is they've done to everyone else."

"Everyone?"

"Well, not _everyone_. I'm still safe, and my friend Gekkou, and a couple of other, but there are fewer of us every day. Someone is bound to notice if a bunch of strangers turn up here. I mean, if things were normal, you could get in easy, but..."

"How are we supposed to help if we can't even get in?" Juudai asked. He sounded exasperated; it was plain that he thought Hayato was a bit dense for not understanding the urgency of the situation.

"Wait until tonight," Hayato suggested. "After five or six, most of the people here go home. I'll stay after and get Gekkou to let you in."

"But if everybody else is gone..."

"Pegasus will still be here," said Hayato. "So will Mr. Phoenix. They never leave, anymore. Gekkou's been watching them. His brother is one of the first to get caught, so he stays here to keep an eye on them. They all stay up in Pegasus's office in the top floor and never come down. Nobody's even _seen_ them in days."

"They never come out? What do they eat?"

Hayato sighed; Juudai could have such a one-track mind sometimes. "They send out for something once in a while. And they send e-mails. That's the only way most of us know they're there."

"Right, so we come in after five o'clock," said Juudai. "Then we'll look for Mr. Pegasus and Mr. Phoenix and get this mess taken care of."

"Thanks," said Hayato. "That makes me feel a whole lot better, knowing I've got you guys to back me up."

"Don't worry about a thing!" Juudai assured him. "We'll see you after five."

"Bye, Juudai. See you then."

The last thing Hayato heard as he began to turn off his phone was Juudai saying, "Hey, guys, Hayato says we can't come in until later. Anybody know any good restaurants around here? Hey, Edo, how do you turn this thing..."

_Everything's going to be fine now,_ thought Hayato. He was breathing easily for the first time in days. He was almost smiling as he returned to the cafeteria.

He was immediately accosted by Gekkou.

"Where have you been?" the man asked, sounding frazzled. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Sorry. I just had to take a phone call," said Hayato. "What's up?"

"I just got word from Yakou."

"He's speaking to you again?"

"Not really," said Gekkou. "He came to me in my office and announced that we're moving up the release date for the next booster pack. Pegasus apparently wants it on the market in three weeks."

"Three _weeks?_ That's imppossible!" said Hayato. "It takes that long to get the cover art approved."

"Pegasus has already approved the cover art. Mr. Phoenix made it," said Gekkou. "All the card designs are being automatically approved as well. At least the ones produced by _those_ people."

"What about the rest?" asked Hayato.

Gekkou's face twisted with disgust. "Rejected. And according to Yakou, they'll keep being rejected until they agree to see the light. That's the way Yakou put it. No matter how you look at it, either you agree to join the Light or you don't work here anymore."

"Not you too!" said Hayato, but he was certain it was true.

Gekkou nodded. "The worst thing... Well, I argued with Yakou, tried to make him see reason. He told me I should join the ranks now, because as soon as this new booster goes to press, the Light is going to spread to _everyone_."

"How?"

"The Light spreads like a disease. Mr. Phoenix caught it and spread it to Pegasus, who gave it to Yakou, who passed it on through the other employees. The cards they're creating are contaminated with it, and when those images go to press, every copy they create is going to be infected with it, and anyone who handles those cards will catch it, and they'll pass it on to anyone they duel..."

Hayato closed his eyes, feeling suddenly dizzy as he imagined a wave of light washing over the entire world.

"When you said everyone, you weren't kidding!"

"We can't wait any longer. Something has to be done now," said Gekkou.

"Not to worry. My friends are coming tonight," said Hayato. "I told you they could fix things."

Gekkou blinked. "Your friends are here? I thought they were at Duel Academia."

"Well, they're here now," said Hayato. "Looking for a good restaurant, last I heard from them, but they'll be back after quitting time. I told them you'd leave the door open for them."

"Hayato, your trust in your friends is deeply touching, but I don't see what a group of schoolchildren, no matter how talented, is going to do for this situation."

"They brought Mr. Phoenix's son with them."

That rocked Gekkou back a bit. "Him? But he disappeared years ago... he was kidnapped..."

"Well, I guess they found him, because he's here," said Hayato. "That's what Juudai told me, and he wouldn't lie."

"Apparently your friends are more resourceful than I thought," said Gekkou. "All right, you win. I'll let them have a try. At this point, I doubt anyone could make matters worse."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," said Hayato. He glanced at his watch. "My lunch break is over and I barely got to eat anything. I wish I was at the restaurant with everyone else."

Gekkou almost smiled. "I'll tell you what - if you and your friends can sort this out, I will personally make sure you get the best dinner you ever had."

"Thanks," said Hayato, giving him a weak smile in return. "I'll take you up on that. And now I've gotta get going. The last thing I can afford to do right now is to look suspicious."

"Good point," Gekkou agreed. "I just had to vent to someone after I heard the news."

"I understand, but don't worry. I promise everything is in good hands," said Hayato.

He tried to sound confident, but privately, he was shaken by what Gekkou had told him.

He really hoped five o'clock would get there soon.

**To Be Continued**


	6. Infiltration

**Infiltration**

**By: SilvorMoon**

"Are you sure this is the right way?" asked Shou uneasily.

"Yes, I'm sure it's the right way!"

"You were sure about the restaurant, too," said Manjoume.

Edo gave him an icy glare. "That wasn't my fault! How was I supposed to know the place had closed?"

"You told us you knew!" Manjoume persisted.

"Well, it _would_ have been good if it had still been open," said Edo. "But Industrial Illusions hasn't closed, and I know my way around. Dad used to bring me to work with him all the time when I was a kid."

"Man, your dad must have been really cool," said Fubuki enviously. "_My_ dad is an accountant. I'm not even allowed inside his building anymore after what happened last time."

Edo wondered what actually had happened last time, and decided that now was probably not a good time to ask.

"Be quiet," he said instead. "We have no idea who's watching us."

Not that there was any point in being stealthy. At this time of day, the sun was still shining brightly, and there was no way anyone was going to miss them trooping across the building's front lawn. Edo's only concession to stealth was that he was taking them around to a side door rather than trying to march in through the front. That was how the plan was supposed to work, anyway - he had relayed this idea to Juudai's friend, who had promised to pass it along to his ally, but there was always the chance that something had gotten lost in translation. Or, he was forced to admit to himself, that someone had remodeled the building in the years since he'd last seen it, and the door was no longer there. It was a great relief to him to discover that it was exactly where he remembered it being, because he didn't think he could stand admitting to Manjoume that he'd been wrong. He tried the handle, and the door swung silently in.

"See, I told you Hayato would come through for us," said Juudai.

"And I told you to be quiet," Edo retorted.

Their instructions had been simple enough. They would enter the building through the side door, take the back staircase (seldom used, as most employees preferred the elevator) to the floor used by the junior artists, where Hayato would be waiting for them to fill them in more thoroughly on the situation.

"I can't believe I'm actually inside Industrial Illusions," Kenzan said, gazing in awe at the unassuming hallway.

"You know what? Keep talking," said Edo, "and I'll see to it that you'll actually be inside one of Industrial Illusions' storage closets."

Kenzan grinned. "Hey, that wouldn't be so bad. They might keep some cool stuff in there."

"_Careful,_" said Saiou. It was the first thing he had said since they had arrived on the premises. "There are people up ahead."

Everyone immediately became silent, standing stock-still as they listened. Some of them looked as though they would rather be running ahead to see what was coming, but Saiou had a way of making people listen to his orders. A few seconds later, a sound of footsteps indicated the approach of what proved to be a young man in a white suit, carrying an aluminum briefcase. He stopped walking and stared.

"Who the hell are you people?" he demanded.

"Authorized visitors," Saiou informed them.

"Have you got proper authorization?"

"Yes," said Saiou. "In case you hadn't noticed, this is the world-renowned duelist Edo Phoenix, and I am his manager, Takuma Saiou. We are here for a very important conference with Pegasus, and he will be most displeased if we are detained by the likes of you. Is that proper enough for you?"

The worker frowned, apparently not convinced that this was enough, but Saiou held his gaze until he backed down.

"Well, far be it from me to get on Pegasus's bad side," he said. "Especially with the mood he's been in lately. I'm warning you, though, if you're up to something funny, you'll be the ones catching his bad mood."

"That is an eventuality we are prepared to deal with," said Saiou.

"Your problem, then," said the worker, and he hurried off.

"Whew!" said Shou. "I thought we were going to get thrown out before we even got in!"

"Thank goodness for star appeal," Asuka observed.

"For Saiou's powers of persuasion," Edo corrected her.

Saiou gave him a sharp look. "What I may or may not have done is not the issue here, and we certainly don't have time to stand here discussing it."

"Sorry," said Edo, looking sheepish. "It just slipped out."

"Let us move on," Saiou said stiffly. He turned and swept off, leaving the others no choice but to scramble after him. Misawa trailed along near the end of the line, half-lost in thought.

_Now, what's eating him?_ he wondered, but there were no answers.

* * *

Hayto thought he'd done a respectable job of avoiding suspicious behavior. About a half an hour before quitting time, he'd managed to accidentally spill a bottle of blue paint on the pretty white painting he'd been working on, thoroughly ruining it. In Hayato's opinion, it was no great loss, and he was willing enough to sacrifice it to the cause. He explained to his co-workers that he wanted to stay after work to make some effort at repairing the damage. Now he sat at his desk, alone in the room, disinterestedly sketching on a sheet of white paper without paying much attention to what he was doing so long as it looked like he was working. If anyone had happened to look, it would have appeared that he was drawing some sort of platypus with wings, which was not what he had been assigned to do at all. He found he still preferred it vastly to the picture he'd ruined.

All the same, he must have felt a bit guilty for his subterfuge, because when the door behind him opened, he nearly jumped out of his chair.

"Hey, easy, it's just us!" said Juudai.

Hayato gave a sigh of relief.

"Man, am I ever glad to see you guys!" he said, bounding over to hug Juudai. He looked around at the rest of the group. "I don't even know who you all are and I'm still glad to see you!"

"Um... maybe... if you let me breathe..." Juudai gasped.

"Oh, sorry."

Hayato released his friend, and Juudai staggered backwards, grimacing and rubbing his ribs.

"I'm glad to see you too, but you don't know your own strength," he said. He tugged his jacket straight and turned to gesture at the others. "Anyway, meet Kenzan and Saiou and Edo Phoenix. Guys, this is Hayato."

"Hiya!" said Kenzan brightly.

"Hi," Hayato greeted. He peered curiously at Edo. "So you're really Mr. Phoenix's son? You look like him."

"Well, yeah, I guess that kinda happens when you're related to someone," said Edo with an uneasy shrug. He raised his eyes uncertainly to meet Hayato's. "Do you know if he's... Well, obviously he's not okay, but..."

"I haven't seen him in a while," Hayato admitted. "We know he's here somewhere. Gekkou - he's my friend, he'll be here soon - he checked the computers and his name has been added back to the payroll and everything. But he never comes out of the office."

"Then we'll just have to get in to him," said Edo firmly.

"It's not so easy," said Hayato. "We're pretty sure he's holed up somewhere in Pegasus's office, but it's closed up with electric locks and all kinds of security. You'd have to be some kind of super-hacker to get in."

Misawa cleared his throat slightly. "If you're looking for a computer expert..."

"You think you can do it?" asked Hayato.

"I won't know until I try," said Misawa, "but I can certainly give it a good shot."

"Great! That will help a lot. Gekkou's brother is in control of all the computer systems now and... Oh, here he is now - he can explain it."

Everyone turned to look as a new person entered the room. He didn't appear to be much older than the rest of them, but he carried an air of quiet authority about him. He scanned the room with a thoughtful gaze.

"So these are your friends," he said. "Welcome, everyone. Under other circumstances, I would be able to show you better hospitality, but..." He trailed off and gestured vaguely, in the manner of someone who isn't accustomed to speaking in front of a lot of people. "Please, sit down, and I'll try to explain how matters stand now."

Everyone obediently gathered chairs from the nearby desks, arranging them into a loose circle so that they could all listen easily to what Gekkou and Hayato had to say.

"It's kinda like being in school again, isn't it?" said Shou with a nervous laugh. Manjoume glared at him, and he subsided. Gekkou ignored both of them.

"I'm not sure how much Hayato has explained to you..." he began hesitantly.

"He said something about a Light," Juudai offered.

"Yes. The Light of Ruin. My brother had been doing research on it, shortly all this began, on Pegasus's orders. Fortunately, I was able to liberate these papers, so we have some information to go on. The Light is an entity that feeds on the wickedness in human hearts, and once it takes root, it grows and spreads until it eventually grows strong enough to spread its influence to others. In this case, the original host was Mr. Phoenix. Now it has reached a point where it is strong enough to affect an almost unlimited number of people, given the proper opening. Within a few weeks, Industrial Illusions is scheduled to release a new booster pack, each card of which will be designed for the purpose of transferring the Light's influence to anyone who uses those cards. The good news is that according to my research, the influence will be negated if we can reach the source of the original infection and negate it."

"So basically we can solve all our problems by beating one artist," Manjoume observed. "And for this we need an army?"

Edo shot him a glare. Gekkou began talking again to head off a fight.

"It's a bit more complicated than that. For one thing, he's very well protected," said Gekkou.

"Yeah, we heard," said Fubuki. "Hayato says he's gone into Pegasus's office and locked the door. But he's got to come out once in a while, right? I mean, you can't just live in an office."

"Not in most offices," Gekkou admitted, "but this is different. Pegasus is, well... a little eccentric."

"Gee, I never would have guessed," said Manjoume.

"Yes, well, he designed his office accordingly. An entire floor of the building has been given over to him, complete with studio, library, movie projector, and a fridge and wine rack, among other things. They are arranged so that you practically need a map to find your way from one to the other, and most of them are locked with a variety of different keys. If someone wanted to hide in there and not be found, it would be easy to do."

"So the question is, how do we get him out?" asked Misawa.

"As near as I can tell, there are three possibilities," said Gekkou. "One would be to acquire the keys. Pegasus has the only complete set. The problem with that is we haven't seen him outside his office recently, either. The second possibility is to find my brother Yakou. He's in charge of all the computer systems in the building, including the ones that maintain the building's security. He could open the locks for you, but he's currently under the Light's control as well. The last possibility would be to hack into the system and open it yourself."

"Hm," said Edo thoughtfully. I'm pretty sure that we aren't going to get a second shot at this, so whatever we do, we need to do it tonight. I say that since there are so many of us here, we should split up into two or three groups. Some of us can go looking for the keys, and the rest can work on hacking into the computers. You said you thought you could do it, right?"

"Entirely possible," said Misawa. "It would help if someone had a good laptop I could borrow..."

"I'll loan you mine," said Gekkou. "And I'll show you where the security system is located."

"I can probably do it myself if you give me directions," said Misawa.

Gekkou shook his head. "Probably not a good idea. We aren't the only ones in the building. Anyone you meet outside this room could very well be on the side of the Light. It would be wisest if we traveled in groups."

"I'm staying with Edo," said Saiou, in a tone that dared anyone to say he couldn't.

"I'm going to look for Pegasus and Mr. Phoenix," said Juudai.

"So am I," Edo added.

"I feel so popular," said Misawa with a sigh.

"I'll go with you," Manjoume told him. "As long as I don't have to go anywhere with Juudai...!"

"I'll come too," Fubuki said. "You might need me."

"For what?" asked Misawa.

"Personal charm," Fubuki replied.

Eventually it was settled. Juudai, Edo, Saiou, Asuka, Kenzan, and Hayato would go in one group, while Misawa, Manjoume, Fubuki, Sho, and Gekkou would go in the other, and they would contact one another the moment any of them had anything to report.

"You can't miss Pegasus's office," said Gekkou. "Just keep going straight up."

"I think I can find it," said Edo dryly.

"Good luck!" Shou called with a weak wave as Juudai ran off in hot pursuit of Edo and the rest of the group trailed after him in greater or lesser degrees of eagerness.

"I just have one thing to say before we begin," said Edo to Juudai. "If we find Pegasus or Mr. Tenma or anyone else, you can try to take them out if you want to. But when we find my dad, I'm going to try first."

"I thought you said I was supposed to be helping you," said Juudai. "I thought it was some big prophecy or something."

Edo gave him a glare. "I don't care. He's still my dad, and I want to try to save him."

Saiou looked doubtful. "I don't want you doing anything that will get you hurt, Edo..."

"Ah, don't worry so much," said Kenzan. He cracked his knuckles significantly. "If anybody's going to be getting hurt around here, it ain't gonna be him."

"Don't hurt _anybody_," Hayto protested. "I have to work with these people."

"No fighting," said Juudai sternly, and Kenzan deflated. Edo felt mildly annoyed by this; this was supposed to be _his_ rescue mission, and people ought to be taking orders from him and not just a boy they had picked up because he'd been told he would be useful.

But at least he knew where they were going, and that was something. Being told they had to go to the top floor was all very well, but knowing how to get there took someone with a bit of knowledge about the building's layout. He toyed with strategies. Would it be better to simply hop onto an elevator, he wondered, and risk finding himself trapped in a small space and confronted with an enemy when the doors opened? Or should he take the more seldom-used stairs, which would take longer? He decided to take the stairs.

He had been expecting the people traveling with him to object to him taking them on the roundabout route, but it seemed that most of them were too awed over actually being inside Industrial Illusions to do much more than enjoy the tour. Juudai and Kenzan, at least, couldn't go ten paces without stopping to point and admire something displayed on the walls, or look inside people's offices. Thankfully, Hayato shooed them out of anything that looked important, and Asuka walked in dignified silence. Saiou walked at the very back of the group, a few paces behind everyone else and looking preoccupied.

_I wonder what he's thinking?_ It probably wasn't safe to ask, but still, if there weren't so many people around, he might have tried to pry the information out of him anyway. Even as things stood, if he hadn't been in such a hurry he still would have dragged him aside and see if he could get him to talk. _He doesn't look happy. Is he still angry because I almost let slip about his mind powers? But I barely said anything... Probably it's because there are so many people around. Well, I'm not too thrilled about it myself, but it was his idea first!_

"Why are we going this way?" Hayato asked. "Shouldn't we be taking the elevators?"

"What if that crazy guy in charge of security is watching us, and decides to shut them down with us inside?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Hayato admitted.

"Do you really think there's a chance of anyone actually doing that?" asked Asuka. "It sounds a bit paranoid to me..."

"It isn't paranoid," said Saiou. His abrupt remark after such a long span of silence made a few people twitch in surprise. "I can feel powerful forces moving in this building... One of them is coming closer."

"Send him away," said Edo.

"I can't," Saiou replied. "I'm being blocked. Someone is already telling them exactly what to think, and I can't get a thought in edgewise."

"Then let's go!" said Asuka, taking a few steps back the way they had come.

"What if it's my dad?" asked Edo, looking eagerly in the direction Saiou was staring, as though he might be able to see through the walls.

"What if it's not?" Hayato retorted.

"I'll check it out!" said Juudai, and before anyone could stop him, he went sprinting up the hall and out of sight. Edo watched him go with an expression of confusion.

"Is he always that stupid?" he asked.

"No," said Kenzan staunchly.

"Usually," said Asuka, "but he has the occasional burst of brilliance."

Hayato sighed. "I guess we'd better go get him."

They hurried up the hall and rounded a corner, and found themselves standing in a small waiting area full of small chairs and tables, spread out with the latest dueling magazines and flyers. A large display full of pamphlets and advertisements was mounted against one wall, while the others were covered in posters of different Duel Monsters. No one was looking at that, though. They were all staring at Juudai, who was staring at Pegasus.

"Hello, children," he said in a singsong voice. "So good of you to come and meet me. I have _so_ much to talk to you about."

No one said anything. They only stood and stared, trying to reconcile what they were seeing now with the man they had seen so many times in pictures and on television and in some cases in person. It wasn't that he looked a great deal different. He was as well dressed as ever, his hair brushed sleek and shining - he looked nothing at all like a man who had been camping out in his office for days on end. What made him look so strange was the fact that his face was stretched into a grin that bordered on being a grimace, and the fact that his visible eye was glowing with a strange white light. Even more disturbing was that a similar pale light was emanating from the space behind his hair, where his lost eye should have been.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk! Don't look so dismayed," he said. "I have wonderful news for you all. In just a few more days, we're going to be releasing the greatest batch of cards ever produced by Industrial Illusions. They're going to revolutionize the game, let me tell you. We might even have to change the name..."

"You can't do that!" said Hayato plaintively.

"Yes, I can," said Pegasus. "It's my company. I can do whatever I want."

"But what about the monsters?" Hayato protested. "You always said you loved them..."

As Hayato spoke, Edo twitched a little - not because of what had been said, but because of the sudden sense of having seen something. He was sure that he had seen vague images of something hovering behind Hayato and Juudai, but when he looked directly at them, they weren't there. He would have thought he was imagining things if he couldn't see that Saiou was staring suspiciously in the same direction.

"There will be new monsters," said Pegasus. "Better ones. The old ones are best forgotten."

"Nothing doing!" snapped Kenzan. "I like my old monsters just fine!"

"You'll like the new ones better. Each one white, perfect, and pure..." "I like the cards I've been making," said Hayato, glaring.

Pegasus frowned slightly. "You have been entirely too willful as of late. I don't know what's wrong with you. This is your last warning, Mr. Maeda. Come to the Light or leave the company." He swept his gaze around the room to take in each other person in turn. "That goes for the rest of you. I will not allow you to interfere with our plans."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Edo challenged.

Pegasus turned to face him. "You are a duelist, are you not? Perhaps we could settle this the old-fashioned way..."

"How about not?" said Kenzan.

Pegasus turned to look, but not fast enough. In the next instant, he was hit by a large and muscular person with violence on his mind. They both hit the floor with a bone-jarring thump. Pegasus struggled to free himself, but Kenzan was a good deal stronger than he was, and nearly as determined. It seemed for a moment as though Kenzan would overpower him completely, but Pegasus's wild thrashing managed to work an arm free, and he struck the boy across the face, stunning him just long enough that Pegasus could wrench himself free, leaving Kenzan holding only his jacket. Pegasus didn't spare any time with idle threats - he dashed out of the room as fast as he could go.

"Well, _that_ didn't go as well as it could have," said Edo.

"I got his jacket," said Kenzan lamely, waving the trophy as proof.

"Maybe the key card is in it," said Juudai. "Check his pockets!"

Kenzan obediently began digging though the folds of the jacket. He made a face. "Nah, there's nothing in here but ordinary cards. I guess he keeps it in his wallet or something." He sighed. "No cash, either."

"Kenzan!" Asuka scolded.

"What? I wasn't going to take it - I was just saying!"

"Give me that," said Hayato, snatching the jacket out of his hands. He began investigating them, apparently looking for something.

"I already told you, it's not there," said Kenzan.

"That's not what I'm looking for," Hayato replied.

Juudai, meanwhile, was already bored and looking for more action. He had wandered over to one of the adjoining hallways and was peering down it curiously.

"Shouldn't we go looking for him?" he asked. "Or do anything but stand around here? What if someone else comes looking for us?"

"I guess we could go after him..." said Edo doubtfully. Truthfully, he didn't care much for the idea of hunting for Pegasus. The days when Pegasus had been an unbeatable duelist were far in the past, but he was still a formidable opponent and had the advantage that he could create any card he liked, and probably did. Edo had learned enough from Saiou to know that funny things could happen when you mixed magic and dueling, and he was in no mood to risk his missing tangling with a secondary player when his real goal was to find his father. "What do you think, Saiou? Is it worth it?"

Saiou opened his mouth to answer, but he was cut off.

"You guys go on ahead," said Hayato. "I want to go after Pegasus myself."

Asuka frowned. "Are you sure? I mean, it could be dangerous. I know you've improved your dueling a lot, but this is _Pegasus_ we're talking about..."

"I know," said Hayato, "but I want to try anyway. He's my boss, and he's always treated me well - I feel like I owe him. Besides," he added, holding up one of the cards he'd found, "I'll have this."

The rest of the group sized up the card he was holding.

"Yeah," said Edo. "That just might do it."

"Go for it, Hayato!" said Juudai. "You can do it!"

Hayato nodded, his face determined. "You can count on me! I have a plan."

"You're sure you don't want someone to go with you for backup?" asked Asuka.

"No, I think this will work better if I go alone," said Hayato.

"Good luck, then," she said. "Call us if anything goes wrong, all right?"

"I'll do my best," he said.

Squaring his shoulders, he took a steadying breath and started out in the direction they'd seen Pegasus go. There was a moment of slightly awkward silence. Edo was not sure what he was supposed to do. It was a bit difficult for him to get worked up over the fate of someone he'd met all of a half-hour ago, but it was plain enough that other members of the team did feel some sense of unease about letting him go off alone, and it felt a bit crass to say, "Well, he's gone. Let's keep going."

"He'll be all right," he said instead. "He's probably the only one of us who's safe wandering around alone, anyway. He actually belongs here."

"Yeah, you're right," said Juudai. "So I guess we'd better get moving before someone else finds us. Do we want someone else to find us?"

"Depends on which someone," said Edo. "Come on, let's move."

Meanwhile, Hayato continued making his way alone. Well, mostly alone - he still had the Des Koala padding along beside him, chirruping encouragement every time his footsteps slowed. The spirit seemed eager to lead him straight to wherever Pegasus was hiding, but Hayato didn't want to rush into anything - not because he was cowardly, though if anyone had asked him at the moment he would have admitted to wishing someone else would take care of this for him - but because he had some preparations to make. In one hand, he carried the card he'd taken from Pegasus's jacket. In the other, he had a pamphlet he had picked up from one of the displays. The two of them together, he hoped, would compose a powerful secret weapon. First, though, he wanted a pair of scissors. Ignoring his partner's chattering, he let himself into an empty office and rummaged around until he found the required tool and began carefully trimming a picture out of the pamphlet. He held his creation up for a moment, considering it. Deciding it would do, he abandoned the rest of the pamphlet in a convenient wastebasket.

"Murr?" asked Des Koala, pointing at the picture he'd cut out.

"Yes, I know it's not real," said Hayato. "That's the point."

"Murr?"

"Of course it's useful. I hope. Now, do me a favor and show me which way Pegasus went."

Des Koala obediently scampered away, stopped, and looked back at him, pointing the way with one outstretched claw.

"Thanks," said Hayato. Hoping he didn't look as nervous as he felt, he walked resolutely after his partner.

They didn't have far to go. Apparently being pounded into the floor by an angry dinosaur didn't agree with Pegasus too well, and he had taken shelter in an unused office to take stock of his bruises and collect himself. He glanced up sharply when the door opened, but upon seeing that it was only Hayato, he relaxed a bit.

"Come to your senses, have you?" he said. "Or have you come to try to talk me out of it?"

"Maybe I just want to know more about what you're doing," said Hayato carefully. "I mean, what exactly are you trying to do?"

"It's very simple," Pegasus explained. "The world as it is now is filled with darkness, and those who hide in darkness become isolated from each other. Their minds and hearts become hidden by the shadows, so that they are incapable of understanding others or being understood by them, and these misunderstandings provoke anger, hatred, war... Humanity's only hope of salvation is to allow itself to be purified by the Light. Once we are all united in the Light, all misunderstandings will be a thing of the past, and everyone will be able to live in peace and harmony. It is of greatest importance that the Light's influence be spread before humanity has a chance to destroy itself."

"I see," said Hayato uncertainly. The words were spoken with such fervor that he was impressed in spite of himself. It was easy to feel that anything Pegasus believed in so thoroughly _had_ to be true - that it was only his limited understanding that was keeping it from making sense.

"I know it must be hard to grasp," said Pegasus sympathetically. "It was difficult for me, too, until I saw it all for myself. Once you've accepted the Light into your mind, it will all be made clear. There were lots of people who were even more frightened than you are who thanked me, afterwards, once I'd clarified things for them. You'll be much happier, too, when it's over."

"So what you're saying is that nothing is more important than the Light," said Hayato carefully. "Even if I had to give up my friends, or my work, or my spirit partner, or dueling, it would be okay as long as I had the Light?"

"Of course," said Pegasus.

"And you'd give up anything, too?" said Hayato. "Even something that used to be precious to you, if it didn't help you with this Light thing?"

"Naturally. Anything that doesn't serve the cause of the Light is irrelevant," said Pegasus.

"Okay," said Hayato. "Then I guess you don't want this anymore, huh?"

He held up the card, watching at expressions flashed across Pegasus's face: shock, anger, doubt. Hayto thought with some satisfaction that he had been right: Light or no Light, Pegasus would not forget about his lost love. Hayato held the proof of that in his hand: the card with Cyndia's image on it, which Pegasus had been carrying even under the influence of the Light, tucked in the breast pocket of his jacket, over his heart.

"Give that back," said Pegasus. "It's not yours."

"What difference does that make?" Hayato retorted. "You just said anything that doesn't serve the Light is irrelevant. That means this is too. You shouldn't care what I do with this picture."

"I don't care - I want it back!" said Pegasus angrily. He reached out snatch it away, but Hayato saw the move coming and avoided it, whisking the card behind his back and moving away a few paces.

"I don't think you need it," said Hayato. "It's distracting you from your great work, right? I'll do you a favor and get rid of it for you!"

Before Pegasus could react, he held the card in front of him again, the back of the card facing Pegasus. Hayato made sure Pegasus had a chance to see it clearly before he began ripping it to shreds.

"No!" Pegasus exclaimed. He fell to his knees on the floor, scrabbling uselessly at the scattered bits of paper. He looked up at Hayato with a gaze that was filled with reproach and a glint of tears, but no trace of white light. "How could you do that?"

"I didn't," said Hayato. "It's okay, really, I promise. See, she's safe and sound." He held up the plainly undamaged card so that Pegasus could see.

"But..." Pegasus said, looking confusedly at the paper Hayato had just torn.

"That one was a fake I cut out of a brochure. I switched them behind my back," Hayato explained. "I'm sorry I scared you like that, Mr. Pegasus, but I had to do something to shock you back to your senses."

Pegasus took the card from Hayato's outstretched hand, turning it over to be absolutely certain there were no tears in it.

"Back to my senses?" he said vaguely. He ran a hand through his hair as he collected his thoughts. "What's been going on? What have I been doing? How did I get here?"

"Well, I'm not really sure," said Hayato. "You just started acting really weird a few days ago..."

"A few _days_ ago?" Pegasus repeated. "I've been out that long? I'm going to need an explanation for this."

"I don't really know how it happened, though," said Hayato. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Hmm..." Pegasus frowned a little as he cast his mind back. "I seem to recall being at home. Yes, I came home from work, spoke to someone about starting dinner, went up to my room to read a while... Oh!" He raised his head with a jolt. "I'll tell you what happened! Arthur Phoenix came into my home, subverted my servants, had me captured by my own bodyguard, and then..." He trailed off hand held up his hands helplessly. "Everything went white. The next thing I remember is seeing you with that card."

"Well," said Hayato slowly, "it's been a busy week."

Pegasus crossed his arms and looked stubborn. "Explain."

So Hayato took a breath and explained everything he could think of about the current situation. Pegasus listened - quietly at first, but with growing agitation.

"They can't do it!" he exclaimed, cutting into Hayato's description of the forthcoming release of white cards. "Someone has to put a stop to it!"

"That's what we're trying to do," said Hayato. "We're trying to get to Mr. Phoenix, but he's locked himself in your office and nobody can get the door open."

"We'll see about that," said Pegasus. "Come on."

He started for the door, while Hayato scrambled along behind him.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"To my office, where else?" Pegasus replied. "Someone has to teach that scoundrel a lesson."

"Yeah, but does it have to be us?" Hayato asked. He was still shaking a bit from the tense situation earlier, and he felt he had used up his supply of heroism for the moment. "I mean, look what happened last time you messed with him. It wouldn't be good if something happened to you..."

"That's so," Pegasus allowed. "Very well, then - what would you suggest we do? Hang about and hope the heroes show up and deal with everything for us? ... Come to think of it, that's what they usually do, isn't it?"

"Well," said Hayato, "we could go looking for them..."

* * *

"I'm surprised you didn't go with Juudai," Misawa remarked, as their own team prepared to leave.

"I thought about it," said Shou, "but what you're doing sounded safer."

"I suppose that comes down to a matter of luck," said Gekkou. "It all depends on who we meet."

"Well, if we hang around here all night, we'll definitely get caught," Manjoume pointed out, "so let's move it already! Where are we going?"

"Downstairs," said Gekkou. "The servers are in the basement, along with a lot of other things that are strictly off-limits, so don't go wandering off, understand? The last thing we need is to trigger an alarm."

"Oh, stop worrying," said Fubuki. "We know how to do this kind of thing."

"We do?" asked Shou.

"Well, not this specifically, but dangerous stuff. We'll be okay," Fubuki insisted.

"For your sake, let's hope so," said Gekkou.

He was leading them down a wide hallway somewhere near the ground floor, and the general sense of space and light seemed to be making him nervous. He kept glancing over his shoulder, and flinching every time someone made an unexpected noise. As they reached the end of the corridor, he waved the others away, pressed himself against the wall, and peeked cautiously around the corner before quickly withdrawing. He backed away a few yards, and the others followed him worriedly.

"I thought as much," he said. "The receptionist is still on duty. We'll have to make a detour."

"Why can't we just walk past her?" asked Fubuki. "Is she with the Light?"

"No," said Gekkou, "but she will tell my brother the minute she sees someone who isn't supposed to be here, and that's most of you people. We're trying not to attract attention."

Misawa looked thoughtful for a moment. "Actually, maybe there's an easier approach. Fubuki, take off your jacket a moment, please."

"Sure," said Fubuki, obediently shedding the garment. "What for?"

"So you'll look less like an Academy student," said Misawa briskly. What he didn't point out was that without the jacket, there was nothing to hide the form-fitting black shirt Fubuki wore underneath, which highlighted his perfectly sculpted surfer's body. "Now, go out there and talk to the receptionist long enough for the rest of us to sneak by."

Fubuki beamed. "No problem! Can do!"

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" asked Gekkou uneasily.

"Trust us," said Manjoume. "It'll work."

Fubuki, meanwhile, was ambling casually in the direction of the receptionist's desk. She raised her eyes from her computer screen to keep a wary watch on him. She was not a particularly old woman, but she was dressed in a drab navy dress, and had her hair pinned up in a severe bun, which made her look older than she really was. She wore no makeup, and a pair of thick glasses perched on her nose. She adjusted them a little as Fubuki sauntered by.

"Do you have clearance to be here?" she asked.

"Nope," he answered, grinning cheerfully. "Don't worry, I'm just here to pick up a friend who's working late."

"I see," she said doubtfully. "And what is this friend's name?"

"Hayto Maeda," he replied.

The receptionist frowned and looked the name up on her computer, but apparently it told her that Hayato was still working that night, because she pursed her lips and glanced back at Fubuki, saying, "Well, it looks like you're going to have to wait a while for him."

"That's cool," said Fubuki. "I'll just hang out here for a while. I never mind spending a little extra time with a pretty lady."

The receptionist frowned, plainly not quite believing that he could be serious. Fubuki only flashed his irresistible smile and moved a bit closer to the desk. From the hallway, his friends watched the performance with interest.

"What is he doing?" asked Gekkou.

"What he does best," Manjoume replied. He shook his head in a gesture of awe mixed with envy. "There isn't a girl in the world who can stand up to him."

And it seemed to be true. The receptionist only watched as Fubuki sat down on the edge of the desk and made himself comfortable there.

"What's your name?" he asked innocently.

"I'm Ms. Wickes," she said, pushing her glasses up her nose nervously.

"Nah, that's not what I mean. I mean, what do your friends call you? Your _real_ name," he said.

"Oh, um... Gladys."

"Gladys, huh? That's kind of nice. I like it," he said. "You don't meet too many women these days named Gladys. It has a kind of an old-school charm to it."

"Ah... thank you," said Ms. Wickes - or Gladys, as the case may have been, since she was probably going to introduce herself as such from then on. Trying for some vestige of professionalism, she asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Fubuki Tenjoin," he answered proudly. With a wink, he added, "I sign autographs. Want one?"

Before she could answer, he reached into a back pocket and pulled out a pen and a small photo of himself posing shirtless on the Duel Academia beach. He scribbled his name in the corner and passed it to the receptionist, who glanced at it and blushed.

"Oh my," she stammered. "Thank you!"

"You've got to promise me you'll keep it where you can look at it," said Fubuki. Something seemed to catch his attention suddenly. "Hey..."

"What?"

"Take off your glasses for a second."

The spellbound Gladys could only do as she was told. Fubuki leaned closer to her until his shaggy hair was almost brushing her forehead.

"Wow," he said. "Did you know you've got absolutely stunning eyes? There's little flecks of gold in them, like stars..."

Somewhere behind him, a flurry of movement went completely unnoticed by the receptionist, which was just as well, because she would have noticed several unauthorized persons scurrying for the safety of a corridor on the far side of the room. As it was, her attention was completely occupied elsewhere. She might have continued to gaze up at Fubuki the rest of the evening if his cell phone hadn't gone off.

"Oops, sorry about that," said Fubuki, sitting up straight again. "Sounds like my buddy is ready for me to come get him. Guess I'd better get going. Nice meeting you!"

He kissed his fingertips and brushed them gently across her lips before sliding casually off the desk and hurrying to rejoin his friends. Gladys stayed frozen in place, still trying to figure out what had just happened. The most coherent part of her brain was wondering if perhaps she ought to work the night shift more often. She was certainly meeting more interesting people here than she did during the day...

Meanwhile, Fubuki was being hauled out of earshot by his friends.

"You didn't have to call me away so soon," he was saying.

"We're on a tight schedule," Misawa informed him.

"Besides, you really didn't want to stay there talking to her all night, did you?" asked Manjoume.

"She wasn't so bad," said Fubuki. "All she really needs is some contacts and a little makeup, and maybe a change of clothes."

"We didn't bring you here as a fashion consultant.," said Manjoume.

"That was a very effective distraction, though," said Gekkou, heading off the discussion before they could get too far off-topic. "We should be in the clear now. There's nothing beyond this point but a few workshops, and they're hardly ever used. We'll be in the server rooms in no time."

"Good. Sooner we're out of here, the better," said Manjoume. "I should have gone with Juudai after all. I bet he's not wasting time messing around in a stupid server room. He's probably doing something _interesting_."

"Nobody held a gun to your head," Misawa said tartly.

"Don't fight, you guys," said Shou. "I'm worried about what's happening to the others. Let's finish this fast."

"He's right," said Gekkou. "If you must quarrel, do it while you're walking, please."

The group began moving again, trekking down the corridors in silence. Shou shuffled along near the end of the group, feeling uncertain whether or not silence was better or worse than the arguments. Manjoume still looked sulky. Misawa seemed preoccupied, no doubt thinking of all the interesting computing challenges that awaited him. Gekkou looked thoughtful as well, and Shou surmised he was worrying about the fate of his brother, his company, and Pegasus. Fubuki was wearing a dreamy expression that probably meant his mind was still back with the receptionist. Shou felt out of place among them, and wondered just what he was supposed to be contributing to this group. He didn't have Misawa's technical knowledge or Manjoume's dueling skill or Fubuki's charm. What could he do that would be useful?

He stopped walking, feeling suddenly weighed down by his helpless thoughts. While he was standing there fighting back self-pity, he became aware of the sound of sobbing. For a moment, he thought it was coming from himself, but no, his eyes felt dry. Someone else was crying nearby.

"Hey, guys," he said. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Manjoume.

Fubuki shook his head. "I don't hear anything."

"It's probably just your imagination," said Misawa.

"No, I definitely hear it. It's coming from over here," said Shou. "Someone crying..."

Before anyone could stop him, Shou took off running. He could hear the others calling after him, but he didn't slow down. Besides being naturally sympathetic, he had a gut feeling that anyone in this building who was crying was likely to be a friend, or at least not an enemy. He followed the noise until he came to a halt beside a partially opened door. He pushed it open a tiny bit more, just enough so that he had a clear view through the crack.

Inside the room was an old man. Shou eyed him warily, assessing his long white coat and wondering if he might be one of these Light people, after all, but when he turned, Shou could see that he was wearing a blue shirt and black slacks underneath, so he surmised that this fellow was probably just your average lab-coated scientist. The old man was crying quietly as he shuffled around the room, slowly gathering things and occasionally dropping them. After he'd let the same book slip through his hands three time in a row, he paused to fumble a handkerchief out of his pocket so he could dab at his eyes and blow his nose. Shou felt a stab of pity for him. Whoever this person was, he certainly couldn't be an enemy.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Shou jumped; Manjoume had come up behind him and was now glaring fiercely at him. "Are you trying to get caught?"

"But... the old man..." Shou protested.

"Forget about him," said Manjoume, as the others came over to see what the fuss is about. "You have no idea who that guy even is."

"Actually," said Misawa, looking through the door, "I know exactly who that is. I've seen his picture hundreds of times! That's Albert Zweinstein - he's the world's leading expert in physics. He's won the Nobel Prize in the subject every year since the prize was instituted..."

"Could you rhapsodize somewhere else?" Manjoume snapped. "We're trying not to be noticed, remember?"

Fubuki peeked through the door. "Aw, he doesn't seem so bad..."

"What is going on here?" asked Gekkou, arriving late.

That seemed to be enough noise that even the distraught scientist couldn't fail to hear it. He glared at the door.

"Go away!" he snapped. "You told me I had until tomorrow to leave! You can't change your mind now - you're not throwing me out until I'm done packing, and that's final!"

"We're not here to throw you out, I promise," said Gekkou placatingly. "We're just passing by."

"We most certainly are not," said Misawa. "We're not going anywhere before I've had a chance to stop and talk. You can't expect me to walk past the greatest scientist of our age without at least getting an autograph."

"Don't waste your time," said Zweinstein bitterly. "By tomorrow, I'm going to be old news. A has-been. I'm washed up!"

"But how can that be?" asked Misawa. "You're legendary!"

"Not for much longer, if the people upstairs have anything to say about it," said Zweinstein. "And just when I was about to reach experimental proof of my theories on the existence of positive darkness!"

"Whatever," said Manjoume. "Come on. We have better things to do than look at somebody's science project."

He started to walk away, but Shou darted out in front of him.

"Wait, wait, don't run off yet!" said Shou. "I think we need to hear what this guy knows."

"Why?" Manjoume demanded. "Just because you feel sorry for him?"

"No, I think your friend is on to something," said Gekkou. He turned back to Zweinstein. "Did you just say you were doing experiments on darkness?"

"Not just any darkness - _positive_ darkness. It's a revolutionary concept," said Zweinstein. "Normal darkness is a negative presence - it is simply the absence of light. Light, on the other hand, is a positive force with material properties. However, I have theoretical proof of the existence of _negative_ light and _positive_ darkness. I was just about to attempt collection of actual samples of positive darkness, when Pegasus cut off my funding and told me to dismantle everything!"

"Well, I'm overriding his orders," said Gekkou.

Zweinstein blinked. "You can do that?"

"I am doing it," Gekkou said. "Now, we need to know more about this dark and light business."

"In that case, you'd better come inside," said Zweinstein.

The group filed inside the cramped lab and began looking for places to sit. The room itself was actually quite large, but it was crammed from floor to ceiling with papers, binders, notebooks, reference books, computer disks, and other unidentifiable equipment. There were chairs, but these were all but buried under things that the scientist had apparently set down at some point and never got around to putting back where they belonged. All efforts to shift any of this accumulated debris resulted in an order not to touch anything, so eventually they all settled for sitting on the floor or leaning gingerly against the shelves.

"Now, what is it you wanted to know?" asked Zweinstein.

"What can you tell us about this 'negative light' you were talking about?" asked Misawa.

"Ahh... Nasty stuff, that is," Zweinstein replied. He rummaged among his things until he found a small whiteboard and a marker so that he could illustrate. "Its existence has been theorized for a long time now. It is said to be produced when light is pulled through a black hole. The process distorts it in such a way as to produce 'negative' light - light with inverted properties. Out atmosphere doesn't contain any positive darkness, so the light appears visible to us as a pale white substance, but it doesn't emit any particles or rays the way ordinary light does. It also seems to have a strange effect on living things. I haven't fully determined why yet, but even brief exposure to it seems to affect their personalities. It's one of the things I hope to study when I've gathered more data... If I could get any data," he added glumly.

"The Light of Ruin," said Gekkou quietly.

"It has to be," Misawa agreed. He looked back at Zweinstein. "You wouldn't happen to know any way of destroying the stuff, would you?"

"Well, funny you should ask that," Zweinstein replied. "The fact is, I have a theory that negative light would be cancelled out by positive darkness in the same way that ordinary darkness disappears when you shine light on it. It was one of the things I was planning on testing with my latest experiment, but now that it's been shut down... I just don't know."

"So that's it," said Gekkou. "I'd wondered why they would send away a harmless researcher, but if he's been experimenting with ways to destroy the Light of Ruin..."

"You've just got to finish that experiment!" Shou blurted. "If you don't, we'll never save Pegasus and everyone and those cards will get put out and the world will come to an end!"

"Quit spazzing out!" said Manjoume, and bopped him over the head for good measure. Shou blinked a little and pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"Thanks," he said. "I think I needed that."

"There's nothing to get worked up about," said Fubuki, laid-back as always. "It sounds like all we have to do is get hold of some of this positive darkness, and the rest should be easy."

"If getting it were easy," said Zweinstein, "someone would have done it already. The fact is, I'm not even fully certain it exists."

"But you just said..." Shou protested.

"I have _theoretical_ proof that it exists," said Zweinstein. "Preliminary experiments suggest that it exists. However, we won't actually know for sure that it exists until we have some in front of us."

"But you said you knew how to get it!" Fubuki persisted. He stopped. "Didn't you?"

"Theoretically," said Zweinstein.

Gekkou stared at him.

"Theoretically," he repeated. He took a breath and let it out in a rush, and ran a hand through his hair. "All right, then. Tell us how, _theoretically_, a person might go about getting hold of some of this positive darkness."

"It can't be found on Earth," said the scientist. "The only traces of it I've ever been able to discern are in a place called Neospace. It's a place located at the center of the known universe. It's a mysterious place - not much is known about it. One of my jobs here was to research it more thoroughly."

"Oh, that's just _wonderful_," Manjoume groaned. "The only thing that could fix this mess is on the other side of the universe!"

"Not the other side," Zweinstein corrected. "Only the middle."

"Well, _that's_ a big help," said Manjoume. "We still couldn't get there."

"Not exactly," said Zweinstein. "By utilizing the unique properties of Neospace, I think I have devised a mechanism for sending things there directly. My plan was to send a collection device there and retrieve it. Unfortunately, the device was never completed, so..."

"Would it be possible for something living to go to Neospace?" asked Gekkou thoughtfully.

"Theoretically," said Zweinstein.

Gekkou sighed. "I should have guessed."

"Our analysis indicates the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere in sufficient quantities to support human life," said Zweinstein, "and the position and brightness of the nearest star suggests that the temperature should be tolerable, but we don't know anything about the terrain or what sort of micro-organisms might be living there... There's no telling what would happen to someone who went there. It could be incredibly dangerous. Besides," he added, "it takes more than one person to run the machinery, and all my helpers have left already."

"I'll help, if you'll tell me what to do," Misawa volunteered.

"Oh, well, in that case," said Zweinstein, "do we have any volunteers?"

"Don't look at me!" Shou said.

"Nobody is going anywhere," said Gekkou. "At least not until we consult with the others."

"Yeah, we should tell Juudai," said Fubuki. "I bet he'd go."

"That isn't what I meant!" Gekkou replied. "I'm just saying that we ought to share what we've learned so we can come to a consensus. I'm _not_ looking for volunteers!"

Fubuki just smiled knowingly. "That's because you don't understand how this hero business works. There's no safe way to save the world."

"Still, no point in being hasty about it," said Misawa. He started fishing out his PDA. "I'm certain Juudai will be glad to help once he hears what we've found, though."

However, before he could press a single button, the device began to beep on its own. Misawa turned it on, and Asuka's voice came through.

"We've got a problem," she said. "Juudai and Saiou have disappeared."

**To Be Continued...**


	7. Choosing

**Choosing**

**By: SilvorMoon**

A short while ago, neither Juudai nor Saiou had been anything like missing, except in the general sense of not knowing exactly where they were. They, along with Asuka and Kenzan, were following Edo's confident lead.

"I hope Hayato is all right," Asuka mused aloud. "It's been a while since we heard from him..."

"He'll be fine, don't worry," said Juudai. "You gotta give him some time! It can't be easy, getting around a guy like Pegasus."

"There's no point in worrying," Edo added crisply. "If he succeeded, good. If he hasn't, there's nothing he can do to help us, so there's no point in going back to get him."

"Hey, that's no way to talk about our friend!" said Juudai.

"Yeah, don't talk about our buddy that way!" Kenzan chimed in, always eager to back up his "big brother".

"What's your issue?" asked Edo, giving Kenzan a look. "You'd never even met the guy before today, so why do you care?"

"That is irrelevant," said Saiou, stepping in just in time to prevent Edo from being hit. Or at least, he intervened in time to stop Kenzan from taking a swing at Edo, which probably would have ended with a swift judo maneuver that would have had Kenzan staring at the ceiling wondering where all the pretty stars had come from. "Edo and Juudai are both right. We must trust that our ally is doing his best wherever he is. We will serve him best by continuing with our mission to eradicate the root of the problem, and that means pushing forward."

"Yeah, what he said," Juudai agreed. "How much further do we need to go, anyway? We've got to be nearly to the top. Look how far down it is!" He gestured to a window, which did in fact show an excellent view of the darkening city skyline.

"Not much further," said Edo. "We've only got about five more floors, I think. We'll be there in no time."

"We must be very careful," Saiou observed. The closer we get to the top, the closer we get to the Light itself. I'm sure it knows we're coming, and I doubt it will let us reach it unobstructed."

"Do you think there's going to be someone waiting for us?" asked Edo. "Come to think of it, we still don't know where that guy Yakou is..."

"I'm not sure," Saiou answered thoughtfully. "It might be best if one of us went ahead to investigate."

"I'll do it!"

Asuka glared at Juudai. "You can't do that - it's too dangerous!"

"It'll be fine. All I need to do is just look really quick," Juudai insisted. "Somebody's got to do it."

"_I'm_ in charge here, so _I'll_ do it," said Edo stubbornly.

"Don't be so hasty," said Saiou. "Your goal here is to save your father. You don't have the leisure to become preoccupied with trivialities. If he wants to investigate, let him do so."

Edo's eyes narrowed. "I thought we were going to need him later."

"I'll go along and keep him out of trouble," said Saiou.

"What if _you_ get in trouble?" asked Edo, still not convinced.

"Then whatever is out there is obviously nothing you want to deal with, and you'll want to get away as soon as possible," said Saiou, "but I don't think that will happen." Without waiting for any response, he started away, beckoning to Juudai to follow him.

"We'll be back in a few minutes," said Juudai brightly, and then they were both gone around a corner.

Edo frowned. "I don't like this."

"It's just Juudai being Juudai," said Asuka tiredly.

"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm getting used to him," said Edo. "It's Saiou I'm wondering about. It's not like him to wander off and leave me alone in a situation like this. He watches me like a hawk if I even try to cross the street by myself. And he was the one who was so certain I'd need Juudai for this... What's he playing at?"

"You got me," said Kenzan, leaning against a wall. "He's your friend - you figure him out."

Edo gave him a dark look. "That was a rhetorical question. Something funny is going on around here, and I want to know what it is."

"Follow him and find out, then," Kenzan suggested.

Edo appeared to think about that suggestion for a moment, then sighed and shook his head.

"Not yet," he said. "I may not always understand why Saiou does the things he does, but he always does them for a good reason. I'll trust him... for a little while. But if he doesn't come back, I'm going to go get him, no matter what."

"So we have to go rescue your friend, but we can't go try to help Hayato if he's in trouble?" asked Asuka. "What kind of logic is that?"

Edo glared at her. "Look, you don't have to help me. I never invited any of you. But Saiou is my brother and I'm going to keep him safe if he needs me. Got it?"

"Hey, you can't just run off and leave us!" Kenzan protested.

"You should have thought of that before you showed up," said Edo.

"Oh, boys," Asuka said. She stepped between them. "Both of you calm down. Remember, Kenzan, we're here to help Juudai, so if he's with Saiou, that means we've got to protect both of them, so there's no use in fighting with each other. Okay?"

"All right," said Kenzan sullenly.

"Whatever," Edo muttered. He looked at his watch. "I give them five more minutes."

Asuka nodded and settled in to wait, watching her companions do likewise.

_This is why I refuse to get involved with boys._

* * *

Juudai was not happy. Not because anything bad had happened to him yet, but because he had a feeling it was going to soon, owing to the fact that he seemed to have lost Saiou. He had no idea how it had happened - he was used to losing his socks, and on several occasions, his homework, and he'd never been able to satisfactorily explain where any of them had gone, but this was the first time he'd succeeded in losing an entire human being. Now, though, he had turned his head just once, and when he had looked back, Saiou was gone.

"Saiou?" he called. "Hey, where did you go? I'm going to be in big trouble if I go back to Edo without you, you know..."

He hesitated a moment, trying to decide where to go from there. Back to the others to confess he'd gotten separated? That wouldn't do. He'd have to find the guy, wherever he'd gone. He began walking slowly up the corridors, glancing around for signs that someone had passed by recently. There were a few doors on that hallway, but none of them were open, and, as Juudai discovered, all of them were locked. No chance of finding anyone in there! Juudai began to feel more and more puzzled - Saiou couldn't have gone very far in such a brief moment, could he? He frowned, trying to remember. It felt like he had only glanced away for a moment, but his mind had wandered a little, somehow, so maybe time had gotten away from him. Still, he thought he would have heard Saiou move off, even while daydreaming...

But he didn't notice anything, not until he walked past the elevator, and the door suddenly opened. He wouldn't have even noticed that, except for the fact that someone reached out and grabbed him. The next thing he knew, he was in an elevator, going down.

"Hey, what's going on?" he objected.

"I'm sorry," said Saiou. "This isn't personal, you understand." His expression turned cold and determined. "This is something I have to do, for Edo's own good."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Juudai demanded. "I'm here to help Edo, remember? He said you told him you'd need me..."

"That is true," said Saiou. "According to my predictions, your presence is vital to the success of this mission. That is why I can't let you proceed any further."

"I don't get it," said Juudai. "Whose side are you on?"

Saiou turned away, avoiding Juudai's gaze. "I am protecting what is most important to me. I don't need to choose a side for that."

"Protecting...?" Juudai repeated.

He got no answer. There was no sound but the hum of the elevator as it plummeted downwards. Juudai began to feel distinctly uneasy. While it had yet to occur to him that Saiou might actually try to _hurt_ him, he didn't care for being cooped up in such a small space, especially in such close proximity to someone he wasn't sure he trusted. He wanted to be back outside where there was more room to move around, and where the floor wasn't constantly dropping beneath his feet. Give him a flight of stairs to run up and down on any day - or better yet, a bannister to slide.

"Where are we going?" he asked instead. It seemed to him like a safe question.

"The eighth floor," said Saiou.

"Great. Wonderful," Juudai replied. "I guess eight's a nice number..."

Saiou gave him an irritated look. "Your sarcasm is not appreciated. It does not matter where we are going. Do you think I'm the villain in the movie, and that I'm going to reveal all my plans to you in a dramatic speech?"

"It would make this elevator ride more interesting if you did."

Saiou made a noise of disgust. "Have you ever thought of anything serious in your life?"

"I think of serious things sometimes," Juudai admitted. "I'm just having trouble figuring out what to be serious about right now. I'm not doing anything to you _or_ Edo, so why are you picking on me?"

Saiou didn't answer. At that moment, the elevator pinged softly, and Saiou forcibly dragged Juudai into the hallway and toward a nearby door. Juudai didn't put up much of a fight. He was still not happy about the situation, but he was beginning to feel a sense of curiosity. Something was wrong with Saiou, and Juudai wanted to know what it was, especially if the problem concerned him in some way. Too bad Saiou didn't seem to be willing to talk about what was on his mind....

Then they stepped through the door and into a dark, empty space. Lights flashed on. Juudai stared, curiosity forgotten.

"Wow," he said, awestruck. "This is a really nice arena!"

Saiou gave him another impatient look. "This is Industrial Illusions. Of course it has a dueling arena."

"So we're dueling, then?" asked Juudai. He felt better already. He knew exactly where he stood as long as he had a deck of cards in his hands.

"We are," said Saiou. "Unless you are willing to leave without a fight."

"You mean, leave as in go back upstairs, or leave as in go back to Duel Academia?"

"I mean, leave as in go away and stay out of this entire situation," said Saiou.

"Don't you want Edo's dad to be rescued?" Juudai protested.

"What becomes of Edo's father is none of your business, and I want you gone," Saiou snapped. For a moment, his eyes flashed angrily, literally glinting with violet light. Then he took a breath and calmed himself. "If you were anyone else, I would force you to leave. But you are not just anyone, so I am forced to take drastic action for you. This _annoys_ me. So we are going to duel, and if you lose, you will leave, and you will not come back."

"What if I don't agree to those terms?"

"You seem to be under the misapprehension that you have a choice in the matter," said Saiou. "I cannot force you to do anything, but I can keep the doors from opening until you agree to do as I say. Is that clear?"

"Fine," said Juudai. "I still don't know what's going on here, but if dueling you is what it's going to take to get you to calm down, then that's what I'm going to do!"

He whipped out his deck and powered on his duel disk, thinking, _And maybe this will help me figure out what your problem really is!_

* * *

"I don't like this," said Edo.

The remaining two members of his party watched him anxiously as he paced back and forth. Neither of them looked happy either.

"He's not answering," said Kenzan, putting away his PDA. "Something must be wrong."

"That's it, then," Edo declared. "We're going to rescue them. Come on."

Without waiting to see who was following him, he turned and began walking swiftly in the direction he had last seen Saiou and Juudai.

"Hey, wait for me!" Kenzan called, and scampered after him.

Asuka reluctantly brought up the rear, walking slowly and falling further and further behind. She was in no hurry. She was thinking. It was plain enough that Juudai was in some sort of trouble - of that, she had no doubt - but she wasn't sure that rushing off in search of him was the best idea. This building was huge, full of twisting corridors and hundreds of rooms. Juudai could be anywhere by now, and knowing his affinity for trouble, he would be in the most difficult to reach place in the building. There was bound to be a better way to find him than just looking around randomly.

She stopped walking. Of course there was a better way, and she was carrying it in her pocket. She quickly searched her jacket until she came up with the compact mirror and eyed it thoughtfully. It looked to her like a perfectly ordinary mirror, and for a moment she found herself wondering if perhaps it wouldn't work after all, but she put those thoughts out of her mind and instead gazed into the mirror's depths.

"Mizuchi?" she asked hesitantly, glad that no one else was there to hear her. "Mizuchi, are you there? We have a problem."

The image in the mirror fogged over as though someone had breathed on it, and then cleared to show Mizuchi's red-violet eyes peering out.

"I had a feeling you might," she said. "It's not like Takuma to disappear without telling me where he's going, but he's hiding from me, so I can't see what he's doing."

"He's hiding from us, too," Asuka replied. "He said he sensed something nearby and went to check it out, and he never came back. He took Juudai with him, and we haven't heard a word from either of them, even after we sent messages."

"I'll be right there," said Mizuchi.

"How are you going to get here? We're miles away..."

"Is there something reflective near you? Something big, like a full-length mirror or a glass door?"

"There's a window."

"Is it big enough for a person to climb through?"

"Yes..."

"Stand in front of it, please, and hold up the mirror so that it's facing the window."

Asuka did as she was told. She was beginning to form an idea as to what exactly her friend was going to do, but she still thought she would be very impressed if Mizuchi actually did it.

She was right. A moment after she had taken her position, the glass in the window warped and darkened, and then Asuka could see the inside of one of the ladies' dorm rooms at Duel Academia. Mizuchi stood there for a moment, sizing up the situation. Then she took a step forward, and was instantly standing next to Asuka. The room faded as soon as she had left it, leaving only the light-sprinkled cityscape outside.

"That," said Asuka, "must be incredibly convenient."

"It has its good points," Mizuchi agreed. She glanced around the area before starting on a brisk walk, tugging Asuka gently but inexorably with her. "Now, tell me as succinctly as possible what just happened to my brother."

So Asuka told her. While she talked, Mizuchi led the way briskly through hallways and down stairs, pausing every so often, apparently to check her direction. She always seemed to have a clear idea of where she was trying to go, Asuka observed, though she didn't always seem to immediately recognize how to get there. Mizuchi's face creased with a frown as she listened to Asuka speak.

"I have a bad feeling I know what's going on," she said. "I think Takuma has probably abducted Juudai himself."

"Why would he do that?" Asuka asked.

"I've been thinking about that," Mizuchi replied. "This isn't the first time he's targeted Juudai, and I've been trying to decide exactly why he's been doing it."

"Wait, he went after Juudai before? When?"

"When Edo and Juudai dueled. Takuma put some of his power into Edo's deck, somehow. I'm not very clear on the details," said Mizuchi. "I do know that whatever Takuma did was designed to break Juudai's fighting spirit when he lost, so that he would not be able to work against us. That's what he said. I'm not sure I believe it."

"I'm still lost."

Mizuchi shook her head. "We didn't trust Juudai a bit at first, you see. He's got... some sort of power around him. When Takuma tried to read his mind too closely, he hit up against a wall of darkness so thick that he was nearly lost in it. When I look at Juudai's reflection in a mirror, his eyes are _yellow_, and a dark aura hangs over him. I don't think it's an evil power he has, but there's something about him..."

Asuka's first reaction was to say no, that was impossible, Juudai couldn't possibly be anything like that. On reflection, though, there always had been something a little odd about him... She shook her head. It wasn't important right now.

Mizuchi continued, "Takuma told me that he distrusted Juudai's power, and even asked me to investigate him more closely to see if I could determine the nature of his gifts. I'm afraid," she added, with eyes downcast, "that a lot of the time I spent with you was because I was following Takuma's orders."

"Now, that I don't believe," said Asuka. "Maybe he did tell you to do it, but that isn't why you did it. Anyone could see that you were with us because you wanted to be there. You didn't give me _this_," she added, holding up the mirror, "because your brother told you to."

Mizuchi gave her a faint smile. "You're right, that was my choice. Takuma never would have let me do it if he knew. I used to think he was so clever, you know..." He footsteps, so urgent before, began to slow as she turned her thoughts towards memories. "He always took care of us, no matter what."

"What about... your parents?" asked Asuka. Even before the question was out of her mouth, she felt it had been a bad one to ask. She'd always just assumed that Mizuchi and Saiou had parents somewhere, but the way Mizuchi was talking...

"We haven't had any for a long time," said Mizuchi. Her voice betrayed no emotion. "They were afraid of us, you see. They thought we must be possessed by evil spirits, and when they couldn't make us be normal, they threw us out of the house instead. Takuma has always been the one to make sure we had a roof over our head and food to eat. He'd do anything to keep me safe - Edo, too, when we found him. He'd steal, even, or use his powers to make people want to give us things. He'd convince landlords that we'd already paid and convince strangers to buy us meals in restaurants. He always said that anyone else would hurt us if they could, so it was all right to take whatever we wanted from them or else we'd never have anything at all. I probably would have gone all my life believing that, if I hadn't come to Duel Academia. You and your friends are good people... but I don't think Takuma believes that. I don't think he believes _anyone_ in this world is worth trusting but Edo and me."

"But why would he attack Juudai, specifically?"

"I'm not sure," said Mizuchi, "but this is what I think: Takuma's cards predicted that it is only with Juudai's help that we will be able to free Edo's father from the force that holds him. Takuma loves Edo deeply, as though he were his true brother and not just one we adopted from the streets. He would never deny Edo anything he wanted, but he would never let anything stand between the two of them, either. Nor would he ever let anything Takuma considered dangerous come too close to Edo."

"And everyone is dangerous to him, right?"

"Yes," said Mizuchi, nodding. "Takuma fought Edo's father once. Or at least, he fought the thing that's controlling him. It ended with Takuma very badly drained and hurt."

Asuka didn't need to hear any more to understand what Mizuchi was saying. She felt herself growing angry. She had been separated from her own brother for so long... What would she have done to someone who had tried to stop her from saving him from Darkness just because they didn't trust him? Nothing pleasant, that was for sure. Probably they would have been happy to go back and face Darkness rather than deal with whatever Asuka had in store for them.

"That's crazy!" she blurted.

Mizuchi nodded. "I know. I'm beginning to realize my brother isn't as clever as I always believed he was. Ah, here we are."

She darted around a corner and found Edo and Kenzan searching the rooms on that hallway. Edo glanced up with something that looked like annoyance; Kenzan's jaw dropped.

"How did she get here?" he blurted.

"Through the window," Asuka told him.

"There you are," said Mizuchi briskly, ignoring their expressions. "I've been looking for you, Edo. Come. We need to go find our brother."

"That's what I'm trying to do!" Edo snapped.

"Well, you're looking in the wrong place," she replied, with big-sisterly authority. "And for the wrong reasons. We need to go stop him before he does something we'll all regret."

Edo's eyes turned dark. "Saiou wouldn't do anything bad."

"Not on purpose," Mizuchi agreed. "That does not, however, mean that he wouldn't do something bad if he thought it was something good. Our brother is not infallible."

"I still don't believe it," Edo insisted.

"Well, he's sure as heck gone somewhere," said Kenzan, "and if Mizuchi can find him, she's doing better than we are. I'm following her."

Asuka's cell phone suddenly jangled. She answered it automatically.

"Hey, this is Hayato," said the voice on the other end. "Where are you guys?"

"I don't know," she admitted. She turned to the others. "Where are we?"

Mizuchi concentrated a moment before replying, "Tell him we're on our way to the arena on the eighth floor."

"Got it," she said, and relayed the information.

"Great," said Hayato. "We'll be right there!"

"We?" Asuka repeated.

"Yeah, that's what I called to tell you - Pegasus is with me. I managed to talk him around."

"That's wonderful news!" said Asuka. She felt immensely relieved. Up until now, she'd seen no proof that someone who had gone over to the Light even _could_ be talked around. It was good to know that whatever they were up against wasn't completely unbeatable. "Listen, be alert, all right? Something strange has happened to Juudai, and there's no telling if he's going to need our help or not."

"We'll be careful," said Hayato. "Thanks for the warning."

He closed the connection. Asuka considered a moment before dialing a new number.

"We should probably let the rest of the group know what's going on, too," she explained.

"You're probably right," Mizuchi agreed. "Call them, but be quick about it. We may already be too late."

* * *

It was not too late.

It was, however, getting closer to "too late" than either party liked. Juudai had taken an early lead in the game, but since then Saiou had been steadily gaining ground. Most of that had been accomplished out of sheer desperation. Saiou's initial plan had been to simply use his mind tricks to convince Juudai that he needed to give up and go back to school. That had been a dismal failure. What rankled was that it wasn't even the strange dark power that had protected Juudai, but the boy's own sheer single-mindedness. There was no shred of doubt in his mind, no hesitation, not even the slightest consideration that he might be making some sort of mistake. There were no shades of gray in his mind - only what should be done and what should not be done, and rescuing Edo's father came under the first category, and that was that. It was rare that Saiou ever met someone who was so thoroughly certain of something, and not even his powers could convince a mind to do the exact opposite of what it intended.

But that didn't matter. He was going to win. Juudai had only a sliver of life points left and only one weak monster on the field - one good attack would finish him off, and then the penalty he had planned would take hold at last. It was better this way, really, than having Edo do it, as he had originally intended. This way, it wouldn't be Edo undermining his own goals. That thought gave Saiou a momentary flash of guilt, but he squelched it. He didn't want to think about how Edo would react when this mission failed. He had been working toward this for so long, it would crush him to lose now. Thinking about that frightened Saiou.

So did the fact that Saiou was realizing that he didn't care, just as long as he got to keep Edo, no matter what condition he was in.

_Even if he is broken by this, I will keep the pieces rather than lose him..._

"My turn," he said. He raised a heavy hand to place a card on his disk. "I play Arcana Force I - The Magician. If this card lands upright, its attack power will double, and then I will attack you directly and you will lose."

"And what if it lands upside-down?" Juudai demanded.

"It won't," said Saiou.

"We'll see about that!" Juudai replied. He watched the card intently as it spun around and around. "All right..."

"_Stop!_"

The card obediently stopped, landing in its reversed position, but no one was paying any attention to that now. Both players were now looking at the person who had spoken. Mizuchi was glaring at her brother with fire in her eyes, while Asuka and Kenzan lurked behind her, watching the proceedings warily. Behind them were the rest of the others, most of them still looking confused as to what was going on. Edo stood a short distance behind them, watching Saiou as if he had never seen him before.

"Stay away!" Saiou ordered. "Don't interfere!"

"Takmua, please... you don't have to do this," said Mizuchi. "Things aren't the way you think!"

"Just keep out of this," he snapped.

Mizuchi reeled back - her brother had never spoken to her in that tone before, but she quickly regathered her courage. She stiffened her spine and pressed her lips together in the manner of a woman who is about to stop fooling around.

"Fine," she said, "I'll prove it." She took a breath, closed her eyes, and said in a carrying voice, "Everyone, listen to me, please. I have an announcement to make. My brother and I are not like other people."

Saiou gave her a look of consternation. "Mizuchi, what do you think you're doing?"

"Proving you wrong," said Mizuchi. Raising her voice again, she continued, "Takuma and I have magical powers. We can see the future, and move things without touching them, and read minds, and lots of other things. We're as not-normal as people can be. That's the truth."

"Why did you tell them that?" Saiou demanded. "What do you think you're going to do - turn them against me?"

"You really have magic powers?" asked Shou.

"Yes, that's right," said Mizuchi.

"It's true," Asuka agreed. "She showed me. She made a magic mirror for me that really works."

"That is _so cool!_" Kenzan exclaimed.

"I want to see!" Shou said, crowding closer.

"I want to see too!" said Juudai.

"You're _dueling_," Saiou snapped at him.

"Oh, yeah, right, I forgot," said Juudai sheepishly. "Can I look when we're done?"

Mizuchi heaved a sigh, feeling slightly lightheaded. It felt so strange to finally say the words out loud; she had almost expected to be struck by lightning for her impertinence. Despite Asuka's acceptance of her and everyone's reactions to learning of Kenzan's peculiar genetic structure, she had still been rejected so many times before...

"You see, Takuma?" she said. "You were wrong. Not everyone will reject us just because of who we are. We don't have to keep hiding. You don't have to protect us any longer."

Saiou stared at her a long time. A hush fell over the room as he stood there, so still that he might have turned to stone. His eyes stayed fixed on Mizuchi. She tried to hold his gaze, but the sheer blankness of that look made her want to turn and run away. It was as though he had never seen her before - as though she were just another stranger whose motives were as shallow and selfish as he believed everyone else's were. Someone he couldn't trust.

"If you are going to turn against me," he said quietly, "then that is just more reason for me to keep what little I have left."

He began his attack. Mizuchi cried out, but she found herself rooted to the spot. Edo, however, was a man of action - he took to his feet, running straight towards the dueling field. Saiou's eyes widened.

"Edo, get back!" he ordered, but it was already too late.

His attack launched toward Juudai - and went straight through Edo. The boy's eyes widened as he realized a split-second before the attack launched what he had just walked into. He gave a grunt of pain as the blast shot through him, but he was an experienced duelist, and one hit - even a powerful one - wasn't enough to knock him off his feet.

That was when Juudai triggered his trap card.

"Mirror Gate!" he declared, and suddenly everything flipped. The blast that had been rocketing towards Juudai's monster was now going the other way, straight towards Saiou, and towards Edo, who was standing in front of him. Still reeling from the first hit and not expecting a second one so soon, Edo was knocked to his knees. Saiou's life points dropped to nothing, but he did not seem to notice that, because he was staring aghast at the prone form before him.

"I win," said Juudai quietly.

Saiou ignored him. He rushed to kneel at Edo's side.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine." Edo pushed himself off the floor with trembling arms, and tried to hide the shaking by brushing off his suit. He looked up at Saiou. "What the hell do you think you were doing just now? Mizuchi told me you were trying to stop Juudai from helping me get my dad back. Is that true? Why would you do that?"

"I... I only wanted to protect you."

Edo shook his head. "No you didn't. Don't lie to me. You've never lied to me before all this started, and I don't want it to keep happening. Tell me the truth."

For a moment, it looked as though Saiou was going to argue. He looked around, saw that everyone was now staring at him, and sighed, hanging his head.

"The truth is that I was afraid," he said.

"Afraid of what?"

"Of losing everything," said Saiou. "I've already lost one family. You and Mizuchi are all I have left. I don't want to lose you, too."

"Do you really believe I'm going to forget all about you as soon as I find my dad again?" Edo asked. "Saiou, I love him, but I haven't seen him in years. He probably doesn't even remember what I look like anymore. You've been with me, taking care of me, all this time. You're as good as a brother to me. I'm not going to forget you."

"But it won't be the same."

"No, it won't be the same," Edo agreed, "but that doesn't mean it shouldn't happen." His expression turned grave. "This was a really stupid thing to do, Saiou. If you thought I was just going to stand by and let you take away the one thing I want most just because you were too selfish to let me get on with my life..."

"You weren't supposed to find out," said Saiou miserably.

"Oh, well, that really makes it better!" Edo snapped. "I never would have believed that you would sink this low..."

Saiou said nothing, meekly accepting the harsh words. Edo glared at him a moment longer.

"You'd better be planning on behaving after this," he said. "Because I don't want to lose any more family, either."

"I'll behave," Saiou promised. When he raised his eyes, there was a glimmer of dampness in them that he quickly wiped away.

"That's right, don't be so serious," said Juudai. "I'm not going anywhere, so no harm done! So let's get back to the real work and start figuring out how to rescue Edo's dad."

"That is a very wise choice of action," said Mizuchi. "I think that is what we should do. Unless...?" She trailed off and looked expectantly at her brother.

"I agree," said Saiou. "I will do whatever I can to help."

"And I know exactly what we should be doing," said Misawa, "and I would have told you earlier except that _certain people_ decided dueling was more important than answering their messages."

"You aren't talking about me, are you?" asked Juudai. "You can't expect a real duelist to turn away from a duel just because his phone is ringing!"

"You can when it's important," said Edo. He turned to Misawa. "What did you find out?"

"I found a guy who knows how to get the stuff that will destroy the Light!" said Shou proudly, earning a glare from Misawa.

"The catch is that we've got to send someone to go get it," Manjoume added. "And it seems like his molecular transmogrifier or whatever it is has never been tested, so it's going to have to be someone stupid. That's why we decided to come tell you instead of trying it ourselves."

"So all we have to do is go get the stuff?" asked Juudai. "That sounds easy!"

"See?" said Manjoume, mostly to himself. "What did I tell you?"

"It's a little more complicated than that," said Misawa to Juudai. He looked as though he might have liked to try explaining it, but then changed his mind. "But essentially, yes, that is how it works."

"Awesome! Let's get started!" said Juudai.

"You mean you want to throw him in some kind of malfunctioning teleporter?" said Kenzan. "You can't do that! You could get him lost forever, or he'll come back missing a leg or something!"

"What exactly is he supposed to be looking for?" asked Asuka. "Isn't it something we could find without having to do... whatever you're thinking of doing?"

"No, it won't work like that," said Misawa. "We need something called 'positive darkness.' Apparently it's the only known substance that can cancel out the Light of Ruin, and it can only be found in Neospace."

"Neospace," Juudai repeated thoughtfully. "That name sounds... kinda familiar."

"It ought to," said Pegasus. "The name has been in the news for a while. I believe there was even a contest hosted by Kaiba Corp. about ten years ago to send some fan-designed Duel Monsters cards to Neospace."

"Oh, yeah!" said Juudai. "That's right, I remember that! I sent some cards. Weird... I haven't thought about that in years."

"I think he should go," said Mizuchi. "When I looked at his reflection, there was a dark aura around him, and Takuma told me that he saw darkness in his mind... If you need someone to find darkness, I think he is the best one to try."

Saiou gazed out into middle distance. "Yes. I think perhaps this is the task he was brought here to perform. He will come to no harm." He met Edo's skeptical gaze. "I'm not just saying that. I've felt from the beginning that he is the darkness that must balance out the Light."

"It's always Juudai who gets to do _everything_," Manjoume complained.

"You're welcome to go first and scout the territory for him," said Misawa tartly. "Are we doing this or not?"

"Lead the way!" said Juudai.

"Here we go again," Asuka sighed.

* * *

It was all rather exciting, in a science-fiction movie sort of way. Juudai watched with wide-eyed fascination as Misawa and Zweinstein fussed with calibrations and plugged in coordinates. Edo was also watching, leaning silently against the wall and keeping his eyes fixed on the activity as though watching for a mistake. He had refused to be left out of the proceedings entirely, though there was really very little for him to do. His watchful presence was enough to lend a sense of urgency to the situation, which might have been useful - the two scientists looked as though they were having entirely too much fun. So, did that matter, did Juudai, who paced restlessly in the small room, plainly eager to get going.

The rest of the group was elsewhere, keeping watch on the situation outside the lab, to make certain that this most vital mission was not disrupted. Mizuchi and Saiou were applying their own particular skills, warning whenever a hostile presence came too close. Manjoume and Hayato were making use of their duel spirits, dispatching them up the hallways to keep watch for anything suspicious. Asuka, Shou, Fubuki and Gekkou patrolled on foot, prepared to use whatever tactics necessary to delay any interlopers. Pegasus had taken over an unoccupied office and was using a computer to keep an eye on the virtual state of things. Juudai would be as safe as his friends could make him - at least until he left the building.

"What do you think, Hane Kuriboh?" he murmured. "Are you ready for a trip?"

"Kuri kuri!" the little monster chirped.

Juudai grinned. "Looking forward to it, huh? Well, me too! This is going to be a good adventure!"

"Almost ready," said Misawa. "Juudai, we're going to need you to stand over there on that platform. Just stand in the middle of the yellow circle and don't get out, whatever you do."

"No problem," said Juudai.

He scampered over to the platform and stood in the center of the circle. It was not, he realized, the most reassuring place he could be standing. A number of tubelike things with glittery lenses were trained on him, making him feel as though he were standing in front of a firing squad.

"Just a few more adjustments," Zweinstein murmured. "Misawa, reduce the focus by two percent. Are we getting a clear signal?"

"It could be better. I'm getting some interference. Just let me... ah, yes, that's much better!"

"What are the power levels?"

"Thirty-eight percent and holding steady."

"Good, good! That gives us plenty of leeway," said Zweinstein. He turned to Juudai. "And it looks like you're in position. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Juudai replied.

"Fine," said Zweinstein. He turned back to Misawa. "Initiate transportation sequence!"

Misawa nodded and began flipping a series of switches. Zweinstein began delicately twisting a few knobs. Juudai watched with some alarm as the mysterious machines above his head began to slowly descend, their glittery glass eyes training on him. It was like having a flock of metal vultures swooping lazily towards him.

"All processes complete," said Misawa.

"Then here we go!" Zweinstein said gleefully, and he pushed a button.

And Juudai's world went black.

* * *

It was morning. Juudai could feel the sun warming his face and hear the chatter of birds from somewhere nearby. He wished, not for the first time, that Duel Academia was not located on a tropical island full of noisy tropical birds who burst into noisy chorus as soon as the sun peeked over the horizon. He wondered who had forgotten to close the curtains last night. He squirmed a little, arranging himself around the lumps in his mattress, trying to find a position that was both comfortable and would keep the sun out of his eyes. He wanted to sleep just a little longer. For some reason, his body felt heavy and achey, as though he had been working hard carrying heavy loads all day the day before. Had someone beaten him in a duel yesterday? He was pretty sure he would remember if something like that happened...

A bird landed on his shoulder and squawked into his ear, and Juudai sat up with a yelp. He had a few seconds to register a flash of color and whirring wings as whatever had disturbed him disappeared into the trees.

"Whoa," said Juudai, as he looked up, and up, and up.

Towering above him were the tallest trees he had ever seen. They surrounded him on all sides, leaving him lying on a heap of soft moss in the middle of a ten-foot-wide sunny clearing. Everything else, as far as he could see, was an endless expanse of tree trunks, some as wide as the Osiris Red dorm itself. If one had been hollowed out, Juudai thought, it could have comfortably housed the whole school, staff and all, with a room for the cat thrown in at the top.

Juudai stood up. He didn't feel afraid yet, only curious. He couldn't remember where he was, or how he'd gotten here, but a part of him felt as though he knew this place as well as he knew his own back yard. The sense of familiarity hovered somewhere just beyond the limits of his awareness. He turned in a slow circle, looking up at the lofty trees. Flowering vines and colorful fruits hung from their boughs, and birds and insects in rainbow patterns flitted here and there. The air smelled sweet. It was so peaceful that Juudai almost wanted to lie down and sleep again, but something nagged at his mind.

"There was something I was supposed to do," he said experimentally, as though someone might confirm or correct him if he said it aloud. No one did. Neither did he remember what he was here for. He prodded his memories and found a jumble of images: a school full of people who played cards, an empty and menacing office building, a laboratory full of mysterious machinery, a beautiful castle that floated on air. They all seemed equally recent and real.

"I'm looking for something," he decided. What, though, he wasn't quite sure. He didn't think it was sticks or leaves or flowers, which seemed to be all that was available in this part of the world.

A noise caught his attention. For a moment, he thought it was one of the multitude of birds. It did sound a little like a bird-call, a kind of gentle chirp, but it sounded familiar.

"Kuri!" it said, and Juudai turned and smiled.

"Hane Kuriboh!" he said happily.

The little bundle of fluff flung itself into Juudai's arms, and he cuddled his partner, laughing as the fur tickled his face.

"Yeah, I'm glad to see you, too!" said Juudai. "Is this your home?"

"Kuri."

"Guess not. Okay, do you have any idea what we're supposed to be doing here? Because I'm a little lost."

"Kuri, kuri!" Hane Kuriboh took to his wings, fluttering a short distance before pausing to make sure Juudai was following him.

"Right behind ya, buddy," said Juudai, and he took off through the trees.

The going was surprisingly easy. Most of the sunlight was filtered out by the many layers of tree branches, leaving the ground covered only by leaves and soft moss. Occasionally, some unknown, monkey-like beast would scamper by, stop to stare at Juudai, and then hurry away again with a squeak. The air had been warm in the sunny patch where Juudai had awakened, but it was pleasantly cool and shady beneath the trees. His earlier aches melted away as he walked, and Juudai found he was enjoying himself. He still wasn't quite sure why he was here, but he trusted Hane Kuriboh not to steer him wrong. He let his mind wander as he walked and walked and walked...

Juudai became aware that one of the trees in front of him did not look quite like the rest. It stood out even among these enormous trees: if they were the size of his dorm, this one was big enough around that the entire main school building could have fit neatly inside it. He thought at first that it had some sort of vine wrapped around it, but as he drew nearer, he could see that what he'd first taken for a vine was actually a flight of steps that had been carved directly into the trunk. He thought there were other carvings, too, but he was too far away to see them. He was obviously going to get a look at them soon, though, because it was to this tree that Hane Kuriboh was leading him. He broke into a run, sprinting so quickly that he outstripped his partner, and Hane Kuirboh gave a squeak as he was snatched out of the air. He clung to Juudai's shoulder and made little chattering noises of encouragement into his ear as he ran.

He skidded to a halt near one of the roots of the tree, where the staircase began. Even the aerial root was thicker around than most trees Juudai had seen, and the steps broad and gently sloped, easy to climb. He started up. Then he stopped.

"Did you hear something?" he said to Hane Kuriboh.

"Kuri..." said Hane Kuriboh doubtfully.

Juudai took another step, and again, felt the sensation of something whispering in his ear, a soft rushing sound like the splashing of the ocean, but there were words in it that he couldn't quite catch. He stopped, and they fell silent.

"You're _sure_ we have to go this way?" he asked.

Hane Kuriboh fluttered his wings in what looked like a shrug.

Juudai looked back up at the tree. From ground level, the trunk looked so solid and massive that it was hard to imagine such a thing could be moved at all, but near the top he could see that it was swaying gently in a breeze that went unfelt there at ground level. Juudai imagined briefly what it would be like to be so high up there, to feel the stairs he was climbing moving back and forth under his feet, to feel the wind pushing him closer to the edge, toward the long drop below him. It would be so much easier and safer to stay down here on the ground...

A wind whispered by, finding its way through the forest somehow to tug at Juudai's hair and clothes, and stirring the leaves at his feet. He glanced down, startled by the sudden movement, and saw a flash of color that didn't belong. It wasn't the right shape as all the leaves, and had touches of black and pink to it. It was a card.

"Hey, I've seen this before..." said Juudai. He reached out to pick it up. The card showed a pink dolphin, surrounded by some sort of rippling bubble. Juudai ran his fingers over it wonderingly.

"I _drew_ this," he said. "But it was just a scribble... How did it turn into a card?"

"Kuri!" said his companion. Juudai stared at him.

"I'm really not sure what you just said," he admitted.

He pocketed the card, his mind made up. He began to walk.

_In the beginning, all was darkness..._

The voice seemed to come from everywhere: from the wind, the tree, the pinpoints of sunlight that slanted through the leaves. Juudai listened as it continued to speak.

_In the beginning, all was darkness. As blackness contains all colors, so this darkness contained all things. It was the beginning of life in the universe, and that life was protected within the embrace of the perfect darkness..._

Juudai began to relax a little. It still felt very strange to hear the voice of an invisible something speaking in his ear, but the story was somehow soothing to him. It felt like a bedtime story that someone told him when he was very small, one which he had almost forgotten until now. That wasn't possible, of course. His parents had never had time to tell him bedtime stories. But still, like everything about this place...

_After the darkness came the light, and the light was good. The light revealed all that the darkness had created, and the dawn of wisdom and knowledge began. While the light and the darkness were in harmony, the universe was peaceful. Life flourished in the darkness, and the arts and sciences blossomed in the light._

The stairs leveled off, and Juudai found himself standing on a platform. He paused to catch his breath a moment. He still hadn't made it very high off the ground - or at least, that was the way it felt, until he actually looked down. The earth seemed to be miles below him, but he wasn't anywhere near the branches of even the smallest nearby trees. The view made Juudai feel a bit uneasy, as there was nothing to keep him from falling over the edge if he slipped, so instead he took to looking at the side of the tree. Patterns had been carved into its bark, showing a variety of animals. Juudai could make out a dolphin, a bird, and various other creatures that were harder to identify. He decided they looked friendly.

When he turned around again, there was another card on the steps - a bird, this time. He tucked it in his pocket and moved onward.

_As all things began moving from the darkness into the light, the light began to cast shadows. These shadows were empty darkness, and nothing existed in them. This false darkness was mere emptiness, and longed to fill itself. It began trying to draw all things into it, even the light itself._

It dawned on Juudai that it was getting colder the higher he climbed. He was beginning to feel the wind now, and very slightly, the rocking of the tree. He tugged his jacket a bit more closely around him. He had reached another flat platform, with another carved image. This one showed not only beasts but humans as well. He picked out a few shapes that he could have sworn were Duel Monsters. He ran his fingers over a carving of an elegant castle with high turrets and flags waving from the tops of the towers. The people and the Duel Monsters both seemed to be passing freely in and out of it. They looked happy. He felt a sudden overpowering urge to be there now. He felt strongly that if he were there, everyone would welcome him with great rejoicing.

"Kuri, kuri!" said Hane Kuriboh excitedly. Juudai leaned a little closer to see what his partner was pointing at.

"Hey, it does look like you!" said Juudai. "Have you been there before?"

"Kuri!"

"Really? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Kuri."

"Yeah, you're right. I guess it never really came up," said Juudai. He stared at the carving. "Why are there so many things here I feel like I should remember? Am I just going crazy? Or what?"

Hane Kuriboh shrugged. "Kuri..."

"It's okay, I'm not blaming you," said Juudai. "All the same, this is _really_ weird."

He turned to begin his climb again, and was unsurprised to find another card lying on the steps nearby. He picked up the beetle card and put it with the others before resuming his ascent.

_The false darkness, seeking to fill its emptiness, began drawing all things into it. Living things that stumbled into it were filled with fear and doubt, objects became lost beyond finding, and all things became part of the shadows. In the end, the darkness became so deep that even the light itself became drawn into it, and its nature was corrupted. And thus the false light was born, and there was no peace left in the universe._

As Juudai climbed, the story seemed to flow past his eyes as though he were watching it happen. The joyful people from the carving were now deceitful and selfish, and the monsters had gone from being magical to downright threatening. He stopped again at the point where the first laves of the smaller trees came into reach, and wished he hadn't. The next mural showed the beautiful city as a crumbling ruin, and the bodies of men and monsters alike lay scattered before it. He closed his eyes, but it didn't help. In his mind, he could hear the cries of pain and smell the stench of death. He turned away with a shudder, forcing himself to look at anything but what was in front of him. He let his eyes focus on space near his feet, and made himself recognize the shape of the card there. It was a friendly looking furry beast, something that looked strong and reassuring, and Juudai stared at it for a long time before he picked it up and moved onwards.

_The true darkness fought against the false light and the false darkness. It took many eons, but at last they were both forced far away from the world of living things, but it took much of its strength to do even that much, and it could not destroy them entirely. Nor was there peace once the false light and false dark were driven away. They had left their marks in the hearts of living things. There were many who had found that they loved the power the false light could give them, and many who feared the true darkness because of the terror left by what was false. When the true darkness reached out to them, those with fear and cruelty in their hearts turned on it..._

"I don't like this story anymore," Juudai complained.

His words were snatched away by the wind, so that he couldn't even hear himself speak. He was very high up now, above the tops of the other trees, and the trunk he was climbing around had become slender enough that it swayed alarmingly. He had to keep one arm wrapped around it to keep from being thrown off. His entire right side was covered in sap and bark and splinters, but he preferred that to taking any chance that he might lose his footing and fall. How high up was he now? Two hundred feet? Three hundred? More? He couldn't even see the ground anymore, just the tops of trees. They were far enough below him that they looked like waves of green foam. They were moving.

He looked quickly away and forced his attention back to the tree trunk. If he looked at it from close by, he couldn't see the trees or the sky anymore, just carved wood. The castle in the carving had been rebuilt so that it was almost good as new, but there was something off about it now, something forbidding, as though it were no longer a gracious home but a prison. It made him feel sad, with an ache that lodged deep in the bottom of his throat. He felt sure that the people in there were lonely and frightened. He pressed a hand to the castle gate as though it might open for him, but it was only wood under his fingers. He felt something shift slightly, and he gave a start and jerked his hand back to find there was a new card in it, showing a pale humanoid creature with gentle dark eyes. He looked suspiciously at the tree before shrugging and moving on.

_The true darkness despaired and withdrew, and the mortal worlds became ever more corrupt, and their denizens filled with wickedness and despair. Finally, the lesser elementals - the spirits of earth, fire, wind, and water, and of the smaller lights and shadows, and the spirits of life and change, drew the remains of the darkness together with their own varied powers. The earth gave it form, the wind gave it breath, the water gave it blood, and the fire gave it warmth, while the light and the darkness and the spirit bound life into it. So the true darkness became a mortal thing, and walked among men and became one of them. As a mortal, it learned to live and love and feel pain and sadness as living things did, and as it learned to fully understand them, so they came to understand it and be drawn back to it. The arrival of darkness's incarnation brought hope to the worlds, and the people rejoiced._

Juudai found that he was getting dizzy, and he had to stop to catch his breath. The air seemed to be thinner than it had been before. It was also, Juudai realized, cold. He was surprised to look up and realize that the sky had darkened. How had it become night so fast? For a moment, all he could do was gaze in awe up at the sky, which held more stars than he had ever seen before. They all looked larger and brighter than the stars at home, and they gleamed in pale pastel colors. Three moons hung in the sky, one huge and white, one smaller and greener, and one that was blue and slightly lopsided, like an egg. There were other planets up there, too. A large portion of the horizon was taken up by the dome-shape of some other world with a cloud- swirled surface and blue-green rings. He stared at it, open-mouthed. He hadn't quite known where he was, but it had still felt like Earth - an exotic part of the Earth, maybe, but still somewhere close to home. His knowledge of the universe wasn't perfect, but he had a strong feeling that this couldn't be anywhere in his solar system.

Then he looked down. He had a feeling it would make him dizzy again if he did it, but he couldn't help himself. There was something compelling about being so high up that made him want to see exactly how far he'd made it. He stared, rubbed his eyes, and looked again. Somewhere miles below, he could see the sun shining on the tops of the trees, and the horizon had a blue glow to it. How had he managed to get _above_ the atmosphere? And how was he still breathing? He swallowed hard.

"How am I going to get down from here?" he wondered. The idea of having to go back _down_ all that way made him slightly dizzy. Or would he just float if he jumped?

_No way to go but up,_ he decided, and continued his weary climb. He had reached the branches of the tree at last, and the stairs had turned into a spiraling bridge made of ropes and boards, strung from branch to branch. It rocked gently with the swaying of the tree. Juudai clung to it with sweaty hands and forced his way onward.

_For as long as the Avatar of Darkness lived in the mortal worlds, there was peace and contentment. The Avatar dwelled among them, not knowing the full extent of his powers, existing only as a child. He was beloved by his people, and that love drew them back to the way of goodness._

_But all was not well, for the false light and false darkness still existed, and the true darkness was weakened in its child's form. Though it was protected by powerful guardians, the false light was able to slip into the heart of its most trusted guide and friend, poisoning her mind with thoughts of jealousy towards all others who might grow close to him, and so he was lost._

_But not completely lost. The avatar was overcome but not destroyed, and remained in stasis in the darkest shadows of the universe, until the day that he would wake again..._

Juudai stopped. There was nothing else he could have done, because there was nothing left to climb. He was standing a sort of platform made of pale wood, or what looked like wood, but it felt like glass to his touch, and the grain of the wood seemed to be swirling and shifting slowly. When he looked over the railing, he could see the leaves and branches of the tree. The leaves shimmered softly like stars, and the branches appeared to be made of cloud, so that he could not tell where the foliage left off and the sky began. The white moon was directly over his head like a spotlight, so huge and close that he thought he could almost touch it. Juudai looked down at his feet to try to see how he had climbed up there, but there was no opening on the bottom of the platform and no gap in its railing. He was simply there. So was the card at his feet. He knelt to pick up the picture of the black panther and put it with the rest.

"Kuri, kuri!" said an excited voice in his ear, so suddenly that if there hadn't been a railing, Juudai would have fallen over the edge.

"Don't do that!" he protested.

"Kuri!" his partner insisted.

Juudai looked to see what Hane Kuriboh was so excited about, and realized that he was not alone. Arrayed before him were all the creatures he'd been collecting: the dolphin, the hummingbird, the scarab beetle, the mole, the panther, the mysterious glowing creature. And there was one other with them, one who looked like nothing other than itself: a sleek, silver-white humanoid with glowing golden eyes.

"Greetings, Juudai," it said. "We've been waiting for you."

"Where am I?" Juudai asked. "Can you tell me how I got here? And what was _that_ all about?" he added, waving his hand vaguely to indicate his climb.

"This is the World Tree," said the hummingbird. "Sometimes called Yggdrasil. It is the tree that grows through all worlds and realities."

"Your friends sent you here," the dolphin elaborated. "I believe you had something important you were looking for..."

Juudai frowned a moment, and then suddenly brightened. "That's right! I remember now! I was looking for Neospace, to get... to get the..."

"Darkness," the panther finished.

"Yeah," said Juudai doubtfully. "I... guess it's a lot more complicated than anyone thought it was."

"It is more complicated," said the dolphin, "but also simpler. You see, Juudai, we've been waiting a long time for the new avatar of darkness to arrive. Now you're here. All that remains is for you to claim that power."

"Huh? You mean, that story was about...?" Juudai trailed off, confused. "But that can't be about me. I'm not the reincarnation of anyone. I'm just me."

"But you did come for the powers of the true darkness," said the creature who had first spoken to him.

"Well, yeah," Juudai admitted.

"Then accept them."

Juudai hesitated for a moment, looking at the creatures assembled before him, at the sky that was unlike anything he'd ever seen on earth, at the foggy limbs of the tree with its starry leaves, and was at a loss for what to say. He knew he needed that power. In his mind's eye, he could see all of his friends back on Earth waiting for him, wondering what was happening to him and if he would come back safely. He knew what would happen if he failed in his mission. But now he also knew just what he had been sent to retrieve. He had left thinking that he was going to pick up something, simple as finding a shell on the beach or a fruit on a tree, and putting it in his pocket and taking it home. The darkness he needed wasn't like that. He stood under those perfect stars and knew that he was small and dirty and fragile. It had never bothered him before, knowing that he was human, but the thought of someone like him having to take up the power that had brought life into the universe and carry it home like a hunting trophy...

The dolphin stepped forward and laid a gentle hand on Juudai's shoulder.

"It's not just for you," he said. "Not even just for your friends. It's for everyone. That's why the darkness became human in the first place - to reach out to others."

"What do I need to do?" asked Juudai.

"All you need to do," said the panther, "is accept."

"Oh. Um, okay," said Juudai.

_This would be a lot easier,_ he thought, _if I didn't know what I was doing._

"I accept," he said.

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting - a bolt of lightning, maybe, or an earthquake. Instead, what he felt was a tremendous sense of stillness, and with it, a great feeling of something about to happen. It was a feeling of potential, one that made his pulse race with the knowledge that the world was brimming over with possibilities, things he could do, people he could meet, things he could learn. It was a good feeling, and the only unsettling part of it was the sneaking suspicion that it had been there all along in some forgotten corner of Juudai's brain, and he had simply never noticed it before. He had a moment to revel in the sensation before it drowned out his consciousness entirely.

**To Be Continued**


	8. True Dreams

**True Dreams**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Manjoume heard the sound of oncoming footsteps and quickly ducked into a darkened office, drawing his jacket tightly around him so that he blended in with the shadows. No one looking into the room would have seen even the glinting of his eyes as he held his breath and watched for the approach of an enemy.

It turned out not to matter, because it was only Gekkou.

"Aw, geez ,it's just you," Manjoume grumbled, stepping out of his hiding place.

"I take it you haven't run into any trouble yet," Gekkou replied. He leaned against the wall near Manjoume's hiding place. "I'm actually surprised. I more than half-expected someone to try to stop us by now."

"Me too," said Manjoume. He ground his fist into his hand. "It's not fair! Juudai gets to do all the important stuff and I have to stalk around like a stupid hall monitor. He never thinks about anyone else's feelings..."

"I take it you were hoping for a fight. Well, I was too, if it comes to that."

Manjoume gave him a look. "You don't really look like the fighting type to me."

"That's perceptive," said Gekkou. "To tell the truth, what I was really hoping was to find my brother."

"You wanted to fight with your brother?" Manjoume said. "That's stupid. I fight with my brothers all the time and it's not worth the bother."

"I think this is a little different," said Gekkou. "Yakou and I used to be very close, a long time ago. It wasn't until Pegasus adopted us that thing started getting... complicated."

"Pegasus _adopted_ you?" Manjoume repeated. This was the first he'd heard of Pegasus adopting anyone.

"Assumed legal guardianship," said Gekkou. "There were a lot of us - children he chose for their skills in gaming and game design. Pegasus recruited me after he saw me playing cards with my friends. He didn't realize then that I even had a twin, but after he found out, he took us both." Gekkou sighed. "Yakou never really forgave me for that."

"For what? Hooking him up with a home with one of the richest people in the world?" Manjoume retorted.

"For being the one who was noticed," said Gekkou. "Yakou worships Pegasus. All he's ever done since he got here is try to get Pegasus to notice him, and I seem to do everything better than he does without even trying."

"That's his problem, not yours," Manjoume said.

"You don't understand," said Gekkou helplessly. "He's my _brother_."

"So what? I've got brothers, too," Manjoume said, "and let me tell you, they're the biggest jerks you've ever met. They put me down and push me around every chance they get. If I can deal with it, so can he."

Gekkou gave Manjoume an evaluating look. "Do you think _I'm_ a jerk?"

"Well, no, not really. Not compared to some people..."

"Then maybe I don't want to treat my little brother that way."

Manjoume was robbed for words. Instead, he snorted softly and folded himself into his black coat as though trying to disappear into the shadows again. Gekkou sighed softly.

"I wonder what's going through his mind right now," he said. "For the first time in his life, _he's_ the one Pegasus favors now."

"Except he's not. Hayato snapped Pegasus out of it, remember?"

"That's not going to make things any better from Yakou's point of view, is it?"

Manjoume had to admit that this was probably true.

Gekkou continued, "I just wish that there was something - something I could say to him that would make him... make him..."

"Make him what? Be happy with being second-best?" said Manjoume. "Not going to happen. Not if he's got any pride."

"At least someone here has some sense," a new voice interjected. It was very much like one of the familiar voices, but not quite. It was Gekkou's voice, but where his was soft and gentle and hesitant, this one was cold and proud and thrummed with intensity. There was a hint of a strain, to it, something that called to mind the wildly spinning gears of a machine just before it broke down entirely.

"Yakou," Gekkou greeted.

"You just can't leave me alone, can you?" said Yakou. "The one time I finally manage to get ahead of you, and you insist on getting in my way."

"I'm not trying to get in your way," Gekkou began, but Yakou talked over him.

"_And_ you took Pegasus from me," he said.

"It wasn't me, it was-"

"That doesn't matter," said Yakou."I've been looking for you, big brother. I want to show you in person what I've learned from the Light. You're finally going to get what's coming to you."

"Yakou, if we just talk about this, I'm sure we can..."

"No," said Yakou, holding up one fist. There was a Duel Disk mounted on one arm, and he wore it in the manner of one who intends to use it.

"We don't have time for..."

"Duel."

"Better do what he says," Manjoume advised, almost boredly. In his experience, dueling someone was often a good cure for whatever mental hangups they were suffering from. Even if they weren't possessed by evil entities that could be conveniently driven out, it was still a good way for all parties involved to blow off steam.

Gekkou seemed to consider for a moment, then nodded. He charged his own disk and took his position on the other end of the hall. Manjoume settled in to spectate.

Yakou, predictably, took the first turn, and Manjoume decided almost at once that either Gekkou had been exaggerating his own abilities, or the Light had drastically improved Yakou's. After a few more minutes, Manjoume settled on the former. Yakou had wasted no time in getting a number of high-powered monsters on the field, mostly filmy angelic-looking creatures that packed a far greater punch than they looked like they should be able to. Gekkou, on the other hand, seemed to be struggling. He was barely defending himself, losing life points by the hundreds each turn. He also seemed to be having trouble settling on a good set of cards, constantly casting things to the graveyard and refreshing his hand.

_This is the guy who Pegasus picked to be his ultimate duelist? He doesn't look like much of a prize to me,_ Manjoume mused. Still, there was something odd about the fact that Gekkou couldn't even seem to muster a decent offensive - he'd barely scraped Yakou's life points - when even the greenest beginner could have at least managed to summon a few more monsters. This was a man who presumably had access to all the best cards ever made, and, if those weren't enough, could make a few more of his own devising. There was no way he ought to be playing that badly.

Which, Manjoume realized suddenly, meant he was playing very well indeed.

"My turn," said Gekkou in his quiet, confident way. "I play Arms Reincarnation. All equipment cards in my cemetery are brought back to the field as monsters with 500 attack points each, and their effects are treated as the monsters' special effects."

Manjoume watched approvingly as an array of monsters appeared in a neat row across the field. Not very strong monsters, to be sure, but it was better than he had done since the duel started. Pity they were all in defense position, though...

"And now I play Stop Defense," Gekkou continued. "All my monsters go into attack mode. And for the final touch, I play Power Connection. Each of my monsters gains an additional 500 attack points for each monster of its type on the field. Since each of my monsters is of the same type, they each gain 2000 attack points."

Manjoume whistled softly. In one move, Gekkou had gone from having no monsters on the field to having five monsters on the field with attack points ranging from 2500 to 3000, and all of them were about to rain down some punishment on Yakou.

_Well, what do you know,_ he mused, as he watched all of Yakou's monsters - and his life points - go up in smoke. _He really isn't half bad. I'd like to have a crack at dueling him someday._

Yakou crumpled to the floor, sent reeling by the force of having all his life points disposed of at once. Gekkou turned off his disk and walked over to his brother's side.

"That's done," he said quietly. "Now, let's forget all this. There's no reason for us to fight."

Yakou raised his head, and his long hair fell away, revealing a face that was twisted into a rictus of pure fury.

"Don't you _dare_ take that condescending tone of voice with me!" he snarled. "It's like this every time! You think you can just keep pushing me down and I'm supposed to smile and tell you it's all right. Well, it's fine for you, but what about me?"

"What about you?" Manjoume sneered. "That's your problem, isn't it?"

Yakou glared icily at him. "Who asked you?"

"Well, excuse me for having an opinion," Manjoume shot back. "I just can't stand listening to some whiny loser carrying on like nothing's ever his fault."

"Manjoume, please, stay out of this..." Gekkou said.

"Who are you calling a.... a...." Yakou stumbled over the words as though they were something unbelievably obscene that he couldn't quite bring himself to pronounce.

"A whiny loser," Manjoume repeated. "That's what I called you, because that's what you _are_. Anybody who blames the fact that he lost on the other player is an idiot who needs to get off the duel field."

"How dare you speak that way to me," Yakou snapped.

"I'm saying it because it's true," Manjoume replied. "Listen to yourself. You act like it's everyone else's responsibility to _let_ you win no matter how bad your game is. Maybe if you put a little effort into improving yourself, you might win once in a while."

"I do put in effort!" Yakou protested. "All I've done since I got here is fight to catch up to him..."

"So you want him to stop fighting?"

"Well..." There was a long pause. When he spoke again, he sounded uncertain. "No, not exactly... I just want to win. To be appreciated."

"Uh-huh," said Manjoume. "Let me tell you something. I know what it's like to have big brothers getting in your way all the time. I know what it's like to lose. And I also know it doesn't make any difference if you don't let it. If you lose, get up and try again. That's the way of a duelist. And as for being appreciated..." Manjoume trailed off and looked at Gekkou. "Looks to me like someone appreciates you. That's more than my big brothers ever did. I can't tell you what to do, but if it were me, I think I'd take advantage of it."

Yakou looked uncertainly at his twin, giving every appearance of a man who is teetering on the brink.

"We used to be friends," said Gekkou gently. "In the orphanage together, remember? You were always the strong one, then. I always relied on you for courage. I still don't like facing the world alone. I still want us to be friends, the way we were before."

He offered Yakou his hand. Yakou looked at him blankly. Manjoume just sighed and pressed a hand to his face.

"Get up, you idiot," he said. "Don't you know an apology when you hear one?"

An expression of shock crossed Yakou's face, and then a cautious smile. He took his brother's hand and stood up.

"Thank you," he said, to Gekkou, to Manjoume.

It was an uncomfortably mushy moment, of the sort that Manjoume preferred to avoid whenever possible. He began to say something disparaging to break the tension, but was saved from having to do so by the ringing of his phone. He flipped it out and answered it while the brothers watched him curiously.

"What is it?" he demanded.

"We have a problem," said Asuka's voice on the other end of the line. "Juudai's passed out, and we can't get him to wake up."

"Oh, great. He's sleeping on the job again!" Manjoume complained. "All right, we'll be right there."

He turned off his phone and looked at the brothers.

"Come on, we've got to get out of here," he told them. "Looks like our hero needs help."

* * *

"Is he still alive?" asked Shou.

"I think so," Kenzan replied. "He's still breathing, I think."

"He had better be!" said Manjoume. "I didn't come all this way just for him to die now."

Juudai felt a foot prodding at his shoulder. He thought it was a foot, anyway. His head hurt, and his whole body felt tingly and achey, as though he were coming down with a bad fever. He moaned and twitched a little.

"Well, he's still alive," said Misawa's no-nonsense voice. "Come on, Juudai, rise and shine."

"Don'wanna."

"You have to. It's important."

"Fymurr mints," Juudai mumbled.

"What did he say?" Misawa asked.

"He wants five more minutes," Shou explained. "Here, I'll get him. Hey, Juudai, if you don't get up right now, the cafeteria's going to run out of fried shrimp."

"What?" said Juudai. "But they don't serve fried shrimp for... Oh," he finished, looking around. There was a ring of people standing around him, watching him anxiously. He fixed an accusatory glare at Shou. "That wasn't nice."

"Sorry," said Shou, "but it's the only known way to get you to wake up."

"I don't know what I did wrong," said Zweinstein. He was bent over his computers, staring at the screens. "Everything should have worked perfectly... I can't find a single mistake."

"What's wrong?" asked Juudai.

"You're asking us?" Asuka replied. "As soon as that machine turned on, you collapsed. You've been out cold for nearly an hour."

"But... but I did go there," said Juudai. "I climbed this huge tree, and there were all these animals..."

"You were dreaming," Manjoume told him.

"I was not! It was really real... Maybe a little too real," said Juudai. "It was scary."

"I guess we'll just have to try it again," said Misawa. "Maybe if we lowered the amplitude a bit..."

"You guys aren't listening!" Juudai snapped. "I really was in Neospace! If I wasn't, then where did I get these?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out all the cards he had picked up when he was climbing the tree. He was surprised to find that there were more there than he remembered finding, but everything he remembered was still there. He held them up for everyone to see.

"Where did you get those?" asked Pegasus.

"I told you," said Juudai. "In Neospace. In the tree."

"I think it might be a bit more complex than that," said Saiou. He was giving Juudai a thoughtful look. "Something has definitely changed. Mizuchi, what can you show us?"

Mizuchi glanced around the room until her gaze fell on a framed print of the periodic table of elements, mostly hidden by a stack of physics magazines. She pushed them aside and unhooked it from the wall.

"This will do," she said. She carried it over to Juudai and held it up in front of him. "Look at your reflection, please."

Uncertain what this was supposed to accomplish, Juudai nevertheless positioned himself in front of the picture until he could see his image reflected faintly in the plastic that covered it. At first he could see nothing unusual, but the image gradually changed, like a developing photograph. The outlines grew sharper and the colors more vivid, until it was exactly as though he were looking into a mirror, and not merely a piece of cheap plastic. Juudai's jaw dropped, but his reflection continued to gaze at him steadily. The space around him darkened and filled with swirling shadows, and his eyes brightened to gold. His face looked harder and sharper somehow, at once older and ageless.

"Am I seeing things?" said Zweinstein..

"This is the image of Juudai's true soul," said Mizuchi. She gave the reflection a critical look. "It appears sufficiently dark to me."

"That's all well and good," said Misawa, "but those of us with more scientific mindsets would like a bit of solid proof."

"Where are we going to get that?" Zweinstein replied. "I haven't got anything he could test it on..."

"Oh, that's all over the place," said Gekkou calmly. "Brother, might I borrow your deck for a moment?"

Yakou took out his cards and passed them to his twin.

"Here," Gekkou said, handing the cards to Juudai. "See what you can make of this."

Juudai made a face at it, as though it felt slimy.

"What has he been doing with these things?" he asked. "Their voices don't sound right."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kenzan muttered, but Manjoume shushed him.

Juudai wasn't paying attention to either of them. He was staring pointedly down at the cards. Something like a white mist was forming over them, writhing and straining. Juudai held the deck over his other hand and squeezed it.

"Come out," Juudai told it sternly. "You don't belong in there. Come out."

The blot of light slithered out of the cards to land in Juudai's palm. It began to twine around his fingers like a tiny white snake. Juudai spread his hand flat, and the light settled there, twinkling. He closed his fist tightly. There was a high-pitched squeal that caused everyone to clap their hands over their ears, and a strong smell of burning plastic. Juudai held his hand closed until the shriek died down, and when he opened it again, there was nothing left but a small patch of silvery dust on his hand. He brushed it off on the leg of his jeans.

"I don't think we'll have any more trouble with the Light," he said.

"Then that's it!" said Edo. "Now all we have to do is go find my Dad."

"You make it sound easy," said Pegasus. "You had better be careful in there. My offices weren't designed for people to find their way through them easily. Even if we unlock the doors for you, beyond that point..."

"We can do it," said Edo. "It's _Destiny_."

"Be careful," said Saiou sternly. "If anything happens to you..."

Edo stared at him. "I thought you were coming with me."

"What?" said Saiou, plainly caught by surprised. "But I thought..."

"Look, you don't have to come if you don't want to."

"I do," said Saiou quickly, "but I thought it was only meant to be you and Juudai. It's not part of my fate to do this."

"I don't care," said Edo flatly. "You said it would take me and him to do this. You never said that nobody else _could_ come along. You didn't predict all of these people, and they've all helped one way or another. Why not you?"

Saiou hesitated. Edo turned and began walking towards the door. "Come on if you're coming. I'm not going to wait."

He caught Juudai by the arm and dragged him along with him. A moment later, Saiou went scrambling gracelessly to catch up.

"Knew you'd do it," said Edo. "Now, let's not waste any more time."

They didn't. With their newfound powers of Darkness, there was no more fear of running afoul of one of the Light's adherents, so they headed straight for the nearest elevator and pushed the button for the top floor. Edo fidgeted as they rode slowly upwards.

"Nervous?" Juudai asked him.

"Kind of," Edo admitted. "I feel like I've been waiting all my life just for this..."

"Then you should be glad it's almost over," said Juudai. "It's no good spending your whole life waiting for something. You ought to be living the life you've got now."

Saiou gave him a thoughtful look, but refrained from commenting.

They reached the top floor, and the elevator doors slid silently open. Edo stepped out warily and looked around. There was no sign of life, and no sound but the almost inaudible hum of a ventilation unit somewhere nearby. Keeping in a tight huddle, they made their way down the hallway to the grand wooden door labeled "Pegasus J. Crawford." Edo glanced at his companions before setting his hand on the latch and resolutely opening it. He threw the door open.

There was nothing inside. More accurately, there was something, but it was only a perfectly ordinary office, with a large desk and a computer and a few bookshelves full of handsomely bound books. Tasteful artworks adorned the walls. There was even a vase of fresh flowers resting on a pedestal in a corner.

"He's not here," said Edo, disappointment etched across his face.

Juudai frowned. "It feels like something is in here... I can hear someone breathing. Can't you?"

Edo shook his head, but Saiou said, "He's right, there _is_ something here, something we're missing..."

Juudai took a few experimental steps into the room, and, when nothing unpleasant happened to him, he took a few more.

"Well, it seems like it's safe," he said, and tripped over something that wasn't there.

"What was that?" said Edo, moving instinctively towards him.

Juudai sat up, apparently unharmed, and began feeling the empty space in front of him. "It feels like a chair."

"An invisible chair?" Edo said, frowning. He put his hand next to Juudai, and felt the leathery texture of the arm of a good-quality piece of office furniture.

"I don't think invisible is quite the right word," said Saiou. He stepped carefully into the room and began walking slowly towards the nearest wall. He stopped and raised a hand to let it rest a few inches short of actually touching anything. "The walls aren't where they should be, either. This whole room is an illusion."

"So the guy is hiding in here somewhere where we can't see him?" asked Juudai.

"Not quite," said Edo. "Pegasus has this whole floor to himself - there are bunches of rooms, all connected to each other. He could be in any of them... but we can't find him if we can't even see the rooms."

"Leave that to me," said Saiou. He began to untie the cravat he wore at his throat, and bound it around his eyes like a blindfold. "I don't need to be able to see to know what my surroundings are. I will be your guide."

He started across the room, moving as confidently as he did when his eyes were uncovered. He paused a few feet to the right of a nearby side door, and reached out to apparently open the wall. There was no visible change, but he turned back to Juudai and Edo to say, "Through here."

Edo found it a disorienting sensation to have to walk through a wall. The fact that Saiou did it with no apparent problems was the only thing that persuaded him to do it. It didn't feel like anything at all, but his eyes were dazzled with a sudden burst of light that made him snap them shut. He could still see bright spots dancing against the back of his eyelids. He kept his eyes shut as he stumbled into whatever came next, and he felt Saiou's hands reach out to steady him. Behind him, he could hear the sound of footfalls, indicating that Juudai was on his way through after him. Edo decided it was safe to open his eyes.

Nothing had changed. They were still in the same office, with the same furniture and the same computer and the same flowers on the same pedestal. Edo blinked. The door they had come through was still open - he could see out into the hallway.

"What just happened?" he asked.

"We moved," said Saiou.

"But it's the same room," said Juudai, which made Edo feel much better.

"It is not," Saiou said. "Whatever it may appear to you to be, this is actually a file room. Be careful how you move - there are a lot of shelves in here."

Juudai was looking around the room, spinning in place.

"Something is different," he said. "I can't put my finger on what, though."

"What do you mean?" Edo snapped back. "It's the same stupid room. Just look at it! Even the pattern of the rug is the same. Even the..."

And then he stopped, because he had just realized what was different. The tasteful artworks on the walls had been replaced by paintings of swirling starscapes. Edo glared at them. They were the same pictures that his father had been painting the day Edo had run away from home.

"Oh, that's really funny!" he shouted at the air in general. "That's really damned funny!"

"Calm yourself, Edo," said Saiou.

"The hell I'm going to be calm! That stupid light thing is laughing at me!" Edo retorted. "Which way is out? I'm going to find that thing and teach it not to play games with me!"

Saiou silently extended a hand, pointing at an invisible door, and Edo rushed toward it, pausing only long enough to glance over his shoulder and make sure Saiou and Juudai were following him. He passed easily through the open doorway, and with another bright flash of light, he found himself in another building entirely.

He was home - his old home, in the little apartment where he had once lived with his father. It looked, he thought, rather the worse for wear, and wondered warily just why he was being shown this when he knew full well that he was supposed to be at Industrial Illusions. His mind knew it, anyway. The rest of him was having trouble believing it. Even though it had been years since he had been in the apartment, memories of it came back clearly. It looked smaller and shabbier than he remembered, but then, he had been smaller the last time he had seen it. The checkerboard tiles in the kitchenette were still there, the ones he had played hopscotch on as a child, and the wobbly kitchen table that his father _would_ try to draw on even though it wouldn't ever stand straight, and the old lamp that his father had picked up at a yard sale still sat in the corner of the living room next to the swaybacked old sofa. Edo wandered over to it and ran his fingers through the fringe on its shade. He had constantly been doing that as a child, no matter how often his father had told him not to do it. Now, as then, he watched in near-hypnotic fascination as the satin tassels swayed and rippled. Illusion or not, it was nice to be home.

_Don't let down your guard,_ he told himself. _This isn't really home._

Even so, it was hard to just turn and walk away. The whole place looked so familiar and so real. He could even smell the scent of his father's painting supplies and the pot of coffee he always kept close at hand. Without thinking about it, Edo began walking towards the studio door and pushed it open.

His father was at his work table, sketching busily, but he looked up as Edo came in. He smiled and held up his picture, offering it for Edo's approval. It was one of the armored heroes Edo had always favored. Edo felt his throat tighten.

_It would be so easy just to stay here..._

The thought felt like it came from somewhere inside him, in his own voice. It seemed so natural. Everything he'd wanted was here. He wouldn't even have to fight for it. As long as he just stayed here, everything would be simple and perfect, exactly the way he wanted it...

"Oh, hell, _no_," he said aloud. "You aren't going to get me like that. Nobody ever got anything good without fighting for it."

He turned on his heel, and, forcing himself to ignore his father's heartbroken expression, marched out of the room.

The scenery changed again. Edo found himself standing on a pile of rubble. Smoke hung heavily beneath a reddish sky, partially obscuring a skyline of ruined buildings that stood before him like a row of broken teeth. He took a cautious step and staggered a little. The ground he was standing on was actually no more than a few slabs of flooring lying precariously across twisted metal beams. The whole thing looked like it would fall apart at any moment. He cast around for a way to get down.

_It's all an illusion,_ he told himself, but his brain was having none of it. What he saw was that he was standing a long way up, on uncertain footing, and that falling down would hurt. He stayed put and tried to decide on an alternate strategy.

While he was still standing there, wondering what to do, his attention was caught by the sound of someone walking slowly across the rubble. Edo looked up, wondering what was going to be thrown at him now, and almost sighed with relief when he saw that it was only Juudai. He looked to be in rough shape - his jacket was torn and there were smudges of soot on his clothing and hair - but he didn't seem to be injured. He walked very slowly, like a man in a trance.

"Hey, up here!" Edo called.

Juudai looked up at him, and Edo felt a chill, not only at the haggard expression on his face, but because his eyes glittered with a hard light, like gold.

"Edo," he croaked. "You... survived...."

"Survived?" Edo repeated. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," said Juudai. He took a few staggering steps forward, slipping on the debris. He kept his eyes fixed on Edo in a way that he found disturbing. It was as though Juudai thought Edo was the last safe thing on earth. "I don't know what I did. It just... went out of control..."

Edo stared. "You mean _you_ did this?"

"I didn't mean to!" said Juudai desperately. "It went out of control. The darkness was too strong... I couldn't make it do what I wanted..."

He reached out a hand towards Edo. Tendrils of darkness twined around it, spreading away from him like a cloud of smoke. Edo tried to back away.

"Please," Juudai gasped, creeping forward. "Don't leave me... you're the only one left... Don't leave me all alone here..."

Edo backed away frantically, and he stumbled and fell down hard. In the next instant, the dark clouds were engulfing him, blinding him...

He lost track of things for a while after that. When he came to, he was lying down, in bed, with the blankets drawn over him. He blinked a few times as he recognized the familiar setting of his own room back home. A wave of disorientation washed over him. Where was he, really? Could this really be just a hallucination, or...

He turned on his side, and saw Saiou dozing in a chair nearby. He looked tired. Edo noticed that his long hair had a frazzled look, as though part of it had been burned off.

"Saiou?" he said cautiously. "Are you... okay?"

Saiou twitched a little and opened his eyes. His features relaxed into a wan smile. "Edo... you're awake. Finally."

"How long have I been out?" Edo asked. He still wasn't convinced that anything he was seeing was real, but he felt that the more he learned about what he was seeing, the more easily he could spot any discrepancies.

"Almost two days," said Saiou. "I was afraid, for a time, that... I'm glad you're all right. Edo. I was worried."

Edo sat up. "What happened?"

"There was... an accident," Saiou answered slowly. "Somehow Juudai's power went out of control. Everything was destroyed. We were lucky to make it out alive. Some of the others were badly injured. Juudai..." He trailed off and shook his head. "It was too much for him."

"And my dad?" asked Edo.

Saiou bowed his head. "I'm sorry. The Light's hold on him was too strong, and Juudai's control was not great enough to separate them."

"No!" said Edo. "That can't be... this is just a dream..."

"I'm afraid not," said Saiou. "You're going to have to accept this."

"I will not accept this! This is just another of these illusions, and I'm not going to listen to it anymore!"

"Calm yourself," said Saiou. "What illusions are you talking about?"

"When we were looking for my dad, there were these hallucinations where I kept thinking I was in different parts of the building, or other places, and... look, it doesn't matter anyway because none of this is real!"

Saiou watched him, his expression grave and tired.

"Edo, please. Don't make this harder than it is," said Saiou. "You've been dreaming. Whatever you have been seeing was a dream, but this is real."

"It is not!"

"I know it will take some time to accept," said Saiou calmly, "but it will be all right. I'll still take care of you. You'll never be alone as long as I'm with you... and the others will be there for you. You can finally move on with your life."

"No, I can't do this..."

"You must. This is reality," said Saiou. "You've never been one to run away from your problems before."

"That was when I thought I could fix them!" Edo snapped.

"Not everything can be fixed. You've done everything you could do, Edo. No one can blame you for how this turned out. It's time to move on."

Edo hesitated. He felt lost and confused, and was wondering if all of this could truly be just an illusion. Maybe he really had been dreaming. If only he could figure out where he stood...

_Close your eyes,_ said a voice in his mind.

"What?" he said aloud.

_Close your eyes. The illusion can't affect you while your eyes are closed._

That made sense. Edo shut his eyes tightly, and a moment later, he felt a pair of hands closing around his own, drawing him to a standing position.

"Juudai, kill the lights," said Saiou's voice.

"What, all of them?" Juudai asked.

"As many as you can."

"Okay, then."

There was a long pause. Then there was a shriek, much louder than the one that Edo had heard when Juudai had crushed the tiny living light, and he would have clapped his hands over his ears if Saiou hadn't been holding tightly to them. Instead, he winced and gritted his teeth until the sound gradually faded away to a whimper and then vanished altogether.

"I believe it is safe for you to open your eyes now," said Saiou.

Edo opened his eyes and was not entirely surprised to see that the scenery had changed again. This time, though, he was not in any place he recognized. In fact, it appeared to be a men's bathroom - immaculately clean, but indisputably a bathroom. Edo was somewhat disturbed to realize he had been lying on the floor, and he brushed reflexively at his clothes. It was dark in the room, with the only light supplied by the moonlight streaming through the curtains of a small window. As Edo's eyes adjusted, he realized that he was still seeing the faint outlines of his room at home against the backdrop of the bathroom. He blinked a few times, but they were still there.

Evidently, Saiou noticed there was something off, too.

"Is that the best you can do?" he demanded, turning his blindfolded face towards Juudai.

"Hey, I'm really new at this!" Juudai protested. "At least it's better now, right?"

"Could someone please tell me what's going on?" Edo demanded.

"You wandered off," Saiou explained. "You kept going from room to room, and it has taken us this long to get our bearings and find you again. You're going to have to be more careful."

Edo bowed his head. "I didn't mean to."

"I know you didn't mean to," said Saiou gently. "Listen. I am not affected by the illusions because I do not need to see to find my way, and Juudai can resist them because he has the powers of Darkness with him, but you have no defenses besides your own innate stubbornness. You are going to have to control yourself."

Edo nodded. "I understand."

"Keep hold of me so you won't wander off again," Saiou told him.

Edo started to protest that he didn't need someone to lead him around like an infant, and then realized that yes, he probably did, considering what he'd just been doing. There was only so long a sane man could go around doubting his senses, and the last thing Edo wanted was to spend the next few days wandering around getting trapped in bathrooms while the world came to an end.

"All right," he said, and took hold of Saiou's arm.

_The blind leading the blind,_ he mused, as he allowed himself to be escorted out of the room. It felt odd to be relying on someone who obviously couldn't see where he was going to show him the right way, but it was downright eerie watching Saiou navigate his way around obstacles without ever seeming to notice they were there.

They stepped out of the bathroom and into an art studio. Edo glanced around it, taking in the shelves of materials, the easels and worktables, the shadowbox, the array of finished and unfinished works set off to the side, the rolls of canvas and framing materials, all the little odds and ends of the trade that he had seen in his father's house so many times before. There was a coffee machine sitting in the corner, patiently keeping the pot warm for the next time someone felt inclined to attend to it. Edo remembered the familiar scents of coffee and paint thinner from his earlier dream and sighed wistfully.

They continued on in silence, with Saiou serenely leading the way and Juudai bringing up the lead. Edo couldn't help but notice that he was growing steadily more agitated as they went on, and that from time to time, his eyes gave off a metallic glimmer. It made Edo uneasy enough that he stopped looking, and felt ashamed of himself for it. Even if they had been only dreams, the idea of Juudai losing control was not a comfortable one.

He forced his mind away from that thought with a great effort of will, and instead tried to think about what he was going to do when they got to the end of this mess and finally found his father. What then? He couldn't help but think that it wasn't going to be as easy as marching in there and telling the Light it wasn't wanted...

The next thing he knew, he was back in his father's workshop again. He stifled the urge to sigh. How many times were they going to go through this?

_It's not going to work this time,_ he thought defiantly. He could no longer see the reality, but he could feel Saiou's hand guiding him steadily forward, and he knew that what he was seeing wasn't real.

_Oh, but this is real,_ hissed a voice in his mind. _It's the truth. You're about to see what really happened. You should know._

_And why would I believe anything you tell me?_ Edo thought.

_Because I am the Light. I illuminate. It is my nature to reveal things. Consider this my token of gratitude._

_Gratitude? What have I ever done for you? In case you missed it, I'm here to kick your ass back to outer space or wherever it is you came from._

_It's your fault I'm here,_ said the Light. _Watch._

And Edo, despite his best efforts, could not seem to do anything but watch, because his eyes saw the same thing wherever he looked. What he saw was the window of his father's workroom, with a starry sky beyond it. One of the stars shone more brightly than the others, and Edo realized that it was coming closer, until it finally fell straight through the glass and onto the desk where Edo's father kept his spare pencils and other odds and ends. Edo saw a piercingly bright light seeping from the edges of the drawer for a second before it faded.

A moment later, the door to the room opened, allowing a shadowy figure to slip inside. The thief began scanning the room before making a beeline for the drawer. He slid it open slowly, and Edo could see a card shimmering faintly inside.

_He's going to steal it!_ thought Edo, with a sinking feeling. The stranger was going to steal the card, and the Light along with it... only he wasn't, because in a few seconds, Edo was going to walk in and stop him. He was going to run away and leave it behind, and Edo's father would find it instead, and the events that had upended Edo's peaceful life would be set in motion.

_You see? It's your fault,_ the Light whispered. _If you hadn't interfered, I would have been taken far away from you and left in the hands of a common thief. Because of you, I was able to work my way into one of the most powerful companies on Earth..._

"It's not my fault!" Edo shouted, and the others stopped walking to stare at him.

"What is it?" asked Saiou urgently.

"It's nothing."

"You don't shout over nothing. What is it?"

Edo hesitated a moment before admitting, "The Light's trying to convince me that this is all my fault. But it's _not_," he added fiercely. "There was no way I could have known what I was doing..."

Saiou shot a glare at Juudai. "I thought you were supposed to be keeping him from hallucinating."

"I'm _trying_, okay?" said Juudai. "This is harder than it looks, and I'm new to it."

"Well, keep trying."

"It's okay," Edo insisted. "I know it's just a trick. I'm not going to listen no matter what it says."

Saiou looked doubtful. Tense lines showed in his usually placid face, but all he said was, "Let's hurry."

And hurry they did. Saiou guided them steadily through the maze of rooms, while Edo struggled to ignore the images that flashed before his eyes. Eventually he grew so tired of trying to tune it all out that he decided that Saiou's solution was best, and closed his eyes. It was somewhat nerve-wracking to be wandering through an unfamiliar space without being able to see where he was going, but Saiou was sure and steady and did not let him take any missteps.

He couldn't do much about the voices, though.

_He could be leading you anywhere,_ the Light insinuated. _He could march you straight out of this building and you'd never even notice. Trusting fool, he's already betrayed you once..._

_Get out of my head._

_Perhaps I should bother Juudai? He's not used to this sort of stress. It wouldn't take much to make him lose control..._

_Forget it. If you could make him lose control you'd be over there messing with his brain instead._

_What makes you think I'm not?_

_Because he's not reacting to it._

_You think you're so clever. We'll see._

The voices retreated. Edo didn't think much of it, but a few moments later, he felt Saiou stop moving. Behind him, Juudai's footsteps also stilled.

"What's wrong?" Edo asked.

"Nothing," said Saiou. "That's what worries me."

Confused, Edo opened his eyes. They were standing in a perfectly ordinary library, with no sign of any illusions. The lamplight reflected softly off the spines of the old books. Edo frowned.

"It's trying to trick us," he said.

"Undoubtably," Saiou agreed, slipping off his blindfold.

"It's gone," said Juudai. "I can't even feel it anymore." He gave a relieved-sounding sigh and leaned against one of the bookshelves, mopping his forehead with the back of his sleeve. "Good thing, too, because I'm bushed. Holding that thing down is hard work." "I'm not crazy enough to think it's giving up," said Edo. "How close are we now?"

"It's in there," said Saiou, pointing at an otherwise unassuming wall of books. On closer inspection, it appeared to be resting slightly at an angle from the wall, and when Edo tugged on it, it moved slightly on hidden hinges. Edo glanced back at the others.

"Ready?" he said.

Saiou nodded gravely. Juudai straightened up and cracked his knuckles.

"Let's finish this," he said.

Edo gave him a thumbs-up, and he opened the door.

And immediately decided that maybe he had been a little too hasty. Beyond the door there was a vast space of shimmering lights, a swirl of colors that was both beautiful and eerie, seeming to creep around the edges of the visible spectrum and into realms that made Edo's eyes ache just to look at it. He looked at Saiou instead, but that wasn't much better. The rippling glow cast weird highlights on his fair skin, making him look alien.

"All right, what am I looking at?" Edo asked.

"I think that's real," said Saiou faintly.

"But it can't be real," Juudai protested. "It's too big. There's not enough room..."

"I have a feeling this door doesn't lead to the same place it used to," Saiou replied. He cast a worried look at Edo. "It's not safe in there. I'm not sure if we'll even be able to get back out once we go in..."

"Thanks for the warning," said Edo, and he went in.

There seemed to be a floor. That was the most he could be certain of - that he was walking on something that was smooth and solid. He even thought he could see it. It swirled and rippled as much as everything else, did, but if he gazed off into the horizon, he could make out a point where the swirling colors didn't match. That was slightly reassuring: it meant that if nothing else, he didn't need to worry about suddenly plunging down a bottomless pit. Not that it would have made a lot of difference anyway, because there was nowhere to fall to. Nothing but light.

Except that off in the distance, there was a tiny dark speck, and the lights danced around it in a pattern that didn't match everything else. Edo made a beeline towards it, feeling his heart hammering. His stomach was clenched in a way that had nothing to do with the nauseous shifting colored lights. It was because he knew what he was going to find, and he didn't want to see it. His feet, however, didn't seem to care what he saw, because he continued to trudge grimly forward.

The only point of darkness on the vast plain of light was a single human being. He was dressed in simple clothing, a pair of slacks and a button-down shirt with its sleeves rolled up, and a pair of glasses perched on his nose. He looked like a pleasant sort of person, the kind who probably went to the store to buy milk and came home with everything but, the kind who probably had half a dozen overdue library books lying around the house, and who probably managed to be late to work on a regular basis because he'd stopped to help someone carry their groceries or get a kite out of a tree. His very normalcy made him seem that much more out of place in this alien plane. He was smiling contentedly, his eyes shining, looking for all the world like a child on Christmas morning looking at his new presents, hardly able to believe all those wonderful things were there for _him_. His hands moved swiftly as though wielding an invisible paintbrush or conductor's wand. The lights followed his movements, sculpting themselves into flickering shapes that vanished as soon as he turned his attention from them, only to be replaced by something new. He didn't seem to notice that Edo and the others were there, even when they stood quite close to him. Edo reached up to tap him on the arm.

"Dad?" he said.

He didn't even turn around.

"Hey!" said Edo more loudly, and tugged hard on his arm.

Mr. Phoenix blinked a little and turned around, fixing them all with a nearsighted look and a benign smile.

"Visitors?" he said. "Good, that's just what I needed. It's amazing here, but it's not the same without anyone else to see it..."

"We're not here to visit," said Edo urgently. "We've got to get you out of here."

His father frowned. "Why would I leave?"

"What, are you kidding?" said Juudai. "Look at this place - it's crazy!"

"Don't say that," said Mr. Phoenix, looking hurt. "Do you even know what this is?"

"It's some weird thing the Light of Ruin made," said Juudai promptly.

"No," said Mr. Phoenix. "I made this. It's my greatest work..."

"Is it even more important than your own son?" Juudai demanded.

A flicker of unease crossed Mr. Phoenix's features.

"My son..." he repeated. He shook himself. "My son is fine. Someone is taking care of him."

"I am," said Saiou. He glared fiercely at the man. "But not any longer. He's your responsibility now."

A flash of longing passed over Mr. Phoenix's face, but it was instantly replaced by a look of fear.

"No, I can't," he said. "I can't leave... I'll lose everything."

"You've already lost everything!" Edo snapped at him. "You've lost your home, your job, you've lost _me_. How could a bunch of lights be worth more than that to you?"

"He won't listen to you," said a new voice. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, and no one had any doubt as to what was speaking, even before the faint outline of something pale and serpentine came to wind itself around Mr. Phoenix like a pale snake. "He's lost in his own little world..."

"More like _your_ own little world," Edo snapped back. "Let him go!"

"Let him go? I can't let him go," said the Light. "He doesn't want to go. He's happy here. He's happier than he's ever been - happier than you could ever make him."

"That's not true!" Edo shouted.

"It is true," the Light insisted. "This is his perfect world - a world of pure light, where he can create whatever he wants with nothing more than an effort of will. Everything here is exactly the way he wants it. I've given him pure artistic freedom - freedom to create whatever world he dreams of. Reality will never be as good to him as this. Why would he ever want to go back to clumsy pencils and inks when he can bring his visions into the world as fully formed visions of perfect light? Just like he'll never want to go back to you when he can have a perfect family who will never leave him..."

"I'm not planning on leaving now," Edo declared. "Not until you give him back."

The Light unraveled itself and slid across the ground to twine around Edo's legs like a hungry cat.

"But why would he want you?" it asked. "You were the one who abandoned him, remember? You told him you _hated_ him. You never even tried to get in touch with him. Why shouldn't he prefer a family who will always be here for him and never leave or betray him? He can even be with your mother again. He can have a perfect son who will love him unconditionally and do whatever he wants. All he has to do is imagine it, and it will be so. That's something you can never do for him. He's happier here than you could ever make him..."

Edo tried to back away from the white creature, but it was wherever he moved, brushing against him caressingly. The touch cut through him like an icy wind, like a blast from the sunless regions of space, and he shivered in spite of himself. The cold crept into his bones and into his blood and spread icy white lights across his vision. With the chill came a creeping sense of depression. Maybe it really was better for his father to stay here. At least here he was safe and happy... and if Edo tried to take him away, who knew what would happen? Just look at the last time Edo had done something for him with good intentions...

But there was something else inside his mind suddenly, something warm, something that blazed with violet flames and drove back the frost, and Edo felt his malaise lifting. A voice in his mind that was not his own said, _Don't even think about it._

The frost vanished, and the catlike creature bounded away with a hiss, glaring fiercely at Saiou. Saiou glared back, his eyes blazing. Juudai made a tearing motion, and the shimmers on the ground surrounding the Light abruptly went out, leaving it standing in the center of a ring of darkness.

"Ha! Let's see you get out of that!" said Juudai triumphantly.

The Light hissed and arched its back, stretching and expanding until it was no longer a cat but a massive snake, and then a dragon with a multitude of legs and wings and spines and claws. Its head split down the middle and split again, forming several new heads, each of which sprouted far too many teeth and horns and eyes. Edo stared as the creature stepped over the gap as though it weren't there and began advancing on Juudai.

"Okay, okay, I didn't really _want_ you to get out of that," Juudai protested.

He began backing away, but it did him no good. The dragon flicked its tail around him, swift as a bolt of lightning, leaving Juudai encircled in white flames.

"Don't waste your strength," said the Light. "Do you think you can fight me with that frail human body? An hour ago you didn't even know you had that power, much less how to use it."

The ring of flames began slowly constricting, as though they might crush Juudai like a snake's coils. Juudai stood his ground as they inched closer. Edo cast a worried glance from him to Mr. Phoenix, who was ignoring the whole event, utterly wrapped up in his creations. Edo wondered if he even remembered that anyone else was there.

The Light continued its advance.

"I'm surprised by your bravery," it said. "It will do you no good, though. The Darkness has become weak from disuse, and I have been working to build my strength."

"Oh, yeah?" said Juudai. "Then why haven't you beaten me yet?"

His response was a hiss as the dragon rapidly contracted his coils, and Edo gave a cry of dismay, thinking that Juudai would certainly be crushed or burned. Instead, the wall of light passed over and around him, leaving a one-foot margin on all sides. Juudai's hair wasn't even ruffled. His only sign of discomfort was a slightly puzzled, I-didn't-know-that-would-happen expression on his face. The Light snarled at him and doubled back on itself, glaring as it tried to sort out new tactics.

"Looks like we're stuck," said Juudai. "Maybe I can't hurt you, but you can't hurt me, either."

Edo felt a twinge of frustration. After all this bother, Juudai still couldn't do anything to help him!

_That's not true,_ said Saiou's voice in his mind. _He is providing a distraction. Do what you came to do._

Edo considered a moment, then nodded. Keeping his eye on the Light, moving slowly so as not to attract attention. He need not have bothered; the Light seemed to have dismissed him as unimportant, and was busy creeping around Juudai, making exploratory strikes that Juudai clumsily dodged or deflected. Both of them looked uncommonly annoyed, as though this were not at all what they had signed up for. Edo decided that it was probably safe to ignore them.

"Hey," he said, tugging on his father's arm. "Come on - we've got to go before that thing notices us."

"Hm? Not yet - just let me finish..."

"No," Edo insisted. "If I wait around for you to finish, we'll never get out of here. Come on, _move_."

His command fell on deaf ears. Frustrated, Edo gripped his father's arm and attempted to physically pull him, but quickly realized that dragging his father anywhere wasn't going to work. It wasn't that Edo was too weak to move him - he was an athletic boy, and his father lived a fairly sedentary life. If it had come down to a physical fight between the two of them, Edo would have won without breaking a sweat. The problem was that physical laws had broken down a long way back, and any attempt to move Mr. Phoenix when he did not want to be moved was an exercise in futility.

_This is ridiculous,_ he thought, pausing to catch his breath. He had succeeded in forcing his father to take a few steps in the general direction Edo thought the door had been, but for all the good it had done, he might as well have saved his energy. Not only were they no nearer to an exit than they had been before, they hadn't even succeeded in getting any closer to Juudai and Saiou. They were exactly where they had started. _Not only is it ridiculous, it shouldn't even be possible!_

At a loss for ideas, he looked back at the fight. Juudai still seemed to be holding out, but it was plain that the Light had been right to say that he didn't know what he was doing. The Light was doing all it could to harry him. One moment it was a dragon with innumerable heads; the next, it became a flock of birds that swooped at him and slashed with beaks and claws; the next, a pack of wolves. Juudai deflected each new attack, but he was beginning to show a strain. Shreds of shadow hovered around him like the fragments of a tattered cloak, and Edo had the unsettling impression that Juudai was starting to slowly come apart at the seams. Even at a distance, his face looked sweaty and grayish, but thus far grimly determined to carry on the fight.

_He's going to lose it,_ thought Edo with a sudden stab of fear. Memories of his hallucinations were still fresh in his mind. _That thing is right - he really can't control that power much longer. Pretty soon he's just going to snap..._

He glared back at his father.

"Dammit, I'm sick of this!" he shouted. "I did _not_ come all this way just to have you stand around staring off into space _ignoring_ me! You are going to come with me whether you like it or not!"

He punctuated his outburst with a swing of his fist. It caught Mr. Phoenix on the jaw and nearly knocked him off his feet. He staggered, struggling to regain his balance, and his glasses fell off and skittered across the smooth ground. Edo watched, a bit guiltily, as his father managed to pull himself together and rubbed gingerly at his face.

"Ow," he said. "That hurt... who did that?" He looked around, squinting as he tried to puzzle out his surroundings. "Where did my glasses go? ... And where am I?"

"You... don't know?" asked Edo carefully.

"I'm not sure. I feel like I've been having a dream..."

"You were, sort of," Edo told him. "Come on, it's not safe here. We need to get out, now."

"But... I can't see..." his father protested.

Edo started to say he would retrieve the glasses, and then stopped.

"Saiou, could you get his glasses?" he asked instead. "And hang on to them for me."

Saiou looked like he wanted to ask questions, but then he changed his mind and hurried to do as he was told.

"You're going to have to do without your glasses for a minute," said Edo. "Trust me, you're better off that way."

"I don't understand," said his father, and Edo couldn't blame him.

"I don't know if I can explain," he admitted. "The short version is, we're in the middle of a big hallucination, and if you look, you'll just get confused again. You're just going to have to trust me for a little while, until we get out of this. All right?"

"All right," said his father hesitantly. "Hallucination?"

"Something like that," said Edo. "Think of it as being like... a hologram projection. One that shows you whatever you want to see. You've been trapped in here for days, watching daydreams."

"That would explain why I'm hungry."

Edo fought back the temptation to laugh, and it came out as a near-sob instead. "I promise we'll get you something to eat as soon as we figure out where the door is."

"You mean you don't know where it is? How did you get in?"

"Through the door. Let's just say I've had a few distractions since then."

Saiou was suddenly standing next to him, holding Mr. Phoenix's glasses in one hand.

"I think it's time to go," he said.

They went. Edo was pleased to find that now that his father was no longer fighting him, they could actually make progress... though towards what, Edo was not quite sure. He couldn't see the exit in front of him, only the battle between the Light and Juudai. The ground they were fighting on was no longer mirror-smooth, but torn and broken into rocky chunks. Juudai knelt on one knee, breathing heavily as he stared up at the monster. It no longer looked like anything recognizable. It was a glaring, pulsing vapor without edges or boundaries to mark where it left off and the rest of the world began. There _was_ no place where it left off, except in the wavering ring of shadow where Juudai crouched.

"Juudai!" Edo shouted. "Come on, we're leaving!"

"Can't," Juudai panted. There was a blue tinge around his lips. "Can't... move..."

"None of you are going anywhere," said the Light. "I've sealed off the exits. There is no escape."

"Wait, I've heard that voice before," said Edo's father, looking blindly for its source. "Who is it?"

"Bad news," said Edo grimly.

"That," said Saiou, "is the one who took your son from you. That is who it is."

A look of shock crossed Mr. Phoenix's face, but it quickly settled into a look of grim determination.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised," he said. "In that case, I owe them a lot of payback."

"I think this guy is a little too strong for you," Edo replied. "We need to concentrate on figuring out a way to get out of here."

Unfortunately, not a lot of ideas were coming to him. He looked out at the scenery, and then from Saiou to Juudai, hoping one of them would think of something. Saiou gave him an apologetic shrug in return. Juudai didn't even give him that much. He swayed a bit and let himself fall to all fours, his arms trembling under his weight and finally giving out entirely. For a moment, Edo thought he had passed out, but then Juudai turned slightly to meet Edo's gaze. The eyes that should have been brown kept flickering crazily to gold and back again.

"He's... control..."

"What?" Edo replied.

"He's in control," Juudai mumbled indistinctly. "Make him... let... go...." and then broke into a fit of coughing.

"No such luck," said the Light, wrapping its misty tendrils around him. "I've waited a long time to crush the life out of you. I am going to enjoy it."

_That's it, then,_ Edo thought, feeling his stomach sink. _He's out of power. We've lost..._

"Hey!" his father shouted. "Listen, I don't know who you people are or what's going on, but you can't go around threatening people like that."

"You stay out of this!" the Light snapped, but the tendrils began to withdraw. Edo watched, puzzled, wondering why the Light would look cowed by a few scolding words from a simple artist....

And then everything shifted, and Edo understood.

"He's in control," he murmured.

Saiou looked at him sharply. "Who is?"

Edo pointed at his father. "_He_ is."

"What?" said Mr. Phoenix.

"Listen," said Edo. "The Light said it created this place so he could have a place where anything he imagines becomes real. How far do you think that applies?"

Saiou's eyes lit up. "Mr. Phoenix, could you do us a favor and imagine there is not a white fog in front of us?"

"Why would you want me to...?"

"Please."

Mr. Phoenix frowned, and squinted as though something had caught his attention. "There _is_ a white fog, isn't there?"

"It's only a figment of your imagination. If you don't think about it, it will go away."

"I can't not think about it. I'm staring straight at it."

Edo glanced from Juudai to his father and back again.

"Think about heroes," he suggested. "You haven't made any new ones in a while have you?"

"Not for a while, no," his father agreed. Already, his face was taking on the slightly misty expression he always got when he was dreaming up some new idea. "Not in a long, long time. Too long. I really should come up with some..."

The Light wavered, flickering like a dying neon tube and hissing its displeasure. Juudai, however, suddenly looked much improved, and he clambered to his feet with fresh energy and took out his deck.

"Time for some reinforcements," he said.

He charged up his Duel Disk and began laying out cards with no care for the proper rules, and monsters appeared one by one. Edo watched, impressed, as the new monsters took to the field: a dolphin, a bird, a beetle, a shaggy beast, a sleek black panther, a being of pale light. They arrayed themselves around Juudai like a phalanx of guards. The Light lunged desperately at them, spitting white flames, but Juudai held up a hand and the flames rolled away from an invisible force field. Then, at his silent command, the monsters moved forward in a rush, surrounding the fog and forcing it in on itself. The swirling lights of the landscape began to slow and finally became still, their colors fading. The Light gave a defiant shriek, but it could barely be heard over the attacks of the monsters.

Mr. Phoenix smiled quietly.

"Yes," he said. "That's just how I imagined it."

Edo held out a hand to Saiou, who wordlessly placed the glasses into it.

"Here," said Edo, passing them to his father. "I think it's safe for you to put these on now."

And it was. The lights around them had become dark, and the world was a misty gray blur. Juudai turned off his disk, and gave his monsters a final smile and a wave as they faded away.

"Thanks, guys," he said. He turned to the others. "I think it's time to go now, don't you?"

They went. On the far horizon was a single point of clarity - not so much brightness as a place where everything looked as though it were in its proper focus. As they hurried towards it, it took on more color and definition, until they could see that it was in fact a small room with many dark wooden shelves, all of them crammed from floor to ceiling with books. The group broke into a run and did not stop until they had reached the safety of its walls. Only then did Edo stop to collapse into a convenient chair. When he looked back the way he had come, he could see only a wall filled with more books. He looked instead at his companions. Juudai, true to form, appeared to have gone to sleep. The other two were watching Edo - Saiou expectantly, Mr. Phoenix with vague confusion.

"Ah," he said, looking uncomfortable. "I'm still not sure what just happened back there, but... I feel, somehow, that it wasn't good."

"No," said Edo, "it definitely wasn't good. But it's okay now, I think. I'm pretty sure we won."

"I suppose I should thank you, then," his father replied. His look of discomfort deepened. "Um... sorry for asking this, but... you look familiar. Have we... met before?"

Edo felt his eyes burning suddenly, and he closed them tightly until he was sure he had himself under control.

"Dad," he said. "It's me. Edo. Ed. Your son."

His father blinked. "Ed? But... no, my son is just a little boy..."

"It's been a few years," said Edo softly. "I grew up a bit."

"But..." said his father. He suddenly slumped, leaning his face into one hand. "Dear God, what has been happening to me?"

"It's okay, Dad," said Edo. "Really. It's okay... Isn't it?"

Mr. Phoenix stood up and walked across the room. He placed a hand on Edo's shoulder and let it rest there for a moment, before finally kneeling so that he could put his arms around his son. Edo froze up before hesitantly returning the embrace.

"Yes," said Mr. Phoenix, his voice shaking. "It's going to be all right. I'll do everything I can to make it right. I promise."

Saiou silently got to his feet and began walking towards the door.

"I'll just tell the others that we're finished," he said, but no one really heard him. He took one last look at the scene in front of him before resignedly turning and walking away.

And all the while, Juudai slept.

* * *

That evening, there was a celebration. With Pegasus around, there couldn't have been anything else, for he was the sort of person who could not let anything slip by quietly. He declared that he absolutely had to reward the people who had so valiantly freed his company from the clutches of evil, and so he had invited more or less everyone he could find to his home for a victory party. There was a feast such as only a mad millionaire could host, where the pizza and cheeseburgers sat alongside the caviar and pate fois gras, and the chocolate gateau and cherries jubilee next to those, all of it in sufficient quantities to satisfy a small army, even one consisting of a number of healthy teenagers and at least one artist who could not remember his last meal. For a while, conversation was reduced to snippets as everyone focused their attention on piling their plates with whatever they liked best and digging in. It was not until people were picking at the last crumbs of their desserts that conversations began to pick up again.

"Whew!" said Kenzan, leaning back into his chair and rubbing his stomach. "I tell ya, this guy sure knows how to throw a party!"

"That's the truth," Juudai agreed. "I might just have to sleep here tonight, 'cause I don't think I can get up..."

"Oh, really? What a pity," said Pegasus slyly. "I was just going to say, I've got the original dueling table we used for the final rounds at Duelist Kingdom downstairs in the basement, and I thought some of you might like to turn it on and play with it a bit. I might even decide to join you."

"Whoa! You mean I could duel you on the same table where you dueled Yugi?" Juudai bounced to his feet, suddenly wide-awake. "What are we waiting for? Come on, hurry up!"

Asuka laughed. "Looks like he's awake now," she commented to those sitting nearest to her. Mizuchi gave her a smile from across the table. Misawa just shrugged.

"There's no keeping him from a duel," he observed. "You could chain him up in a dungeon and he'd still find a way to get out if he knew there would be a duel waiting for him once he escaped."

"I have to admit, I wouldn't mind going down there to join in," said Asuka. "I've read so much about those original battle simulators, but I've never seen one outside of a museum. What do you think - are you guys up for it?"

"Maybe in a little while," said Misawa. "I have some things to discuss with Pegasus and Dr. Zweinstein first. And possibly make a few phone calls."

"Phone calls?" asked Asuka. "Who do you need to call?"

"Principal Samejima, for one," said Misawa. "You know. To explain why I'm not coming back to school."

"You're not coming back?" Fubuki repeated. "Why not? Is something wrong?"

"No, no, nothing is wrong," Misawa hastily assured him. "In fact, everything is very good. It's just that I've been offered a job, and I think I should take it. I mean, it isn't every day an opportunity like this comes along..."

"So you're going to come work with me?" said Hayato. "That's great! It'll be good to have someone I know around."

"Well, not exactly _with_ you," Misawa replied, "but here at Industrial Illusions. Apparently Dr. Zweinstein was impressed at how quickly I caught on to working the equipment..."

Asuka caught on. "So you're going to stay here and work with him? That's great. I know you'll enjoy that."

Misawa preened. "I think it will be an excellent opportunity to make use of my particular skills."

"Good," said Manjoume. "The less competition around, the better. Now, if you don't mind..." He got up and began following the others towards the basement and the promised duels.

"I think I'll start heading that way myself," said Asuka. She looked at Mizuchi. "Are you going to come?"

"In a minute," Mizuchi replied. She glanced towards where her brother and the Phoenixes were sitting. "I want to stay and see how this turns out."

The situation did indeed look as though it needed a watchful eye on it. Edo and his father were among the few who had paid more attention to conversation than to eating, and had been talking nonstop since they'd sat down. Saiou, for his part, had taken his place across the table from Edo and had spent the whole meal staring silently at his plate and eating without enthusiasm, in the manner of one who is sure everyone has forgotten he was there.

Mr. Phoenix set his fork down and regarded the crumbs on his plate as though not quite certain how they had gotten there. He had lost track of all time while he was sealed away in his dream world, and had therefore done ample justice to his meal, but he had been paying far more attention to his son than to his food. Odds were good that he'd forgotten what it was he had been eating. He reached for a cupcake from one of the nearly empty dishes in front of him, and as he did so, his gaze fell on Saiou.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you," he said, flushing slightly.

"It's nothing," said Saiou, keeping his eyes on his empty dish.

"No, it really isn't. You were there helping me, earlier," said Mr. Phoenix. "I never properly thanked you for that."

"It's nothing," said Saiou again.

Mr. Phoenix looked distinctly ill at ease. "Ed's been telling me, too, that you've been taking care of him while I was... all this time. I truly can't say how indebted I am to you. If you hadn't been there to keep him safe, there's no telling what would have happened to him."

"It was not a problem," Saiou informed him in the same flat tone.

"From the way Ed tells it," said Mr. Phoenix, "you two are very close. He tells me he considers you his brother."

This time Saiou didn't say anything, but he did raise his eyes to give Mr. Phoenix a slightly suspicious look.

"Anyway, I've been thinking," Mr. Phoenix continued. "Ed says that you and your sister don't have parents of your own... If you wanted to, I wouldn't mind if... Well, it seems like a shame to break up the family, and I don't know you very well yet but I know that anyone Ed trusts so much can't be bad, so..."

"No," said Saiou flatly.

Mr. Phoenix looked as though he'd been slapped. He lowered his eyes.

"No," Saiou repeated. "I know what you're trying to say, but no, I am not going to move in with you and Edo."

"What?" Edo exclaimed. "Why not? Come on, Saiou..."

"I am not," said Saiou. After a suitably dramatic pause, he added, "I have seen your apartment, and it was never meant to hold four people. It would be much more convenient if you moved in with us."

Edo sighed with relief. "Don't _do_ that."

"It's all right," said his father, laughing. "We'll figure something out, I'm sure. The important thing is that we stay together, one way or the other."

"Right," Edo agreed.

"But only during non-school hours," said Mizuchi.

The others looked at her. She shrugged a little.

"I don't know about the rest of you boys," she said, "but _I_ plan to finish my education. I still have two and a half more years at Duel Academia." She smiled sweetly at her brothers' surprised expressions. "It's all right. I can always come home after classes." She twirled one of her ever-present pocket mirrors through her fingers.

"Well, as long as you come home," said Saiou.

"Otherwise, we'd have to come after you," Edo agreed, "and I'm not going through this again."

They were interrupted by Juudai bouncing over to them and seizing on Edo's arm, nearly yanking him out of his chair.

"What are you guys talking about over here?" he demanded. "Everybody else is already at the dueling table, and I want a rematch so I can show you all my new cards. Come on!"

"I don't know. Should we?" Edo asked his father.

Mr. Phoenix smiled. "Of course we should. I want to see how much your dueling has improved."

So they went - the whole family - to enjoy a few good games, and the companionship of their friends, and of each other.

And then, when they were done, they would go home.

**The End**


End file.
